


Saving the Future

by caveyoja



Category: Runaways (Comics)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-07-10 10:51:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 41,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15947849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caveyoja/pseuds/caveyoja
Summary: Then again, home wasn’t much better.  At least not now.  Gert had an epic meltdown months ago, and stormed out.  Nico and Karolina had talked Chase into not running after her, but they all regretted that when Gert never came back.  Chase said he thought Gert was still around because he could sort of feel her through Old Lace, but he had no clue where she was.  He’d spent weeks barely sleeping while he and Lace looked for her.  Eventually he ran out of places to look and now he was either working at his crappy job or arguing with Doombot about fixing Victor or just drinking until he passed out.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't happy when they killed off Gert way back when, and was really hoping when they brought her back that we'd see Gert and Chase back together again...but, then came the last issue....
> 
> So, this is my version of a fix-it.
> 
> Comic book canon compliant at the moment, but will probably diverge as of the next issue.

Molly hated field trips. She especially hated field trips where she knew more about them then the teacher. La Brea tar pits? Used to call it home. Natural History Museum? Fossils were boring after living with a dinosaur. And, it wasn’t like she could even hang out with Abigail anymore. They weren’t BFFs any more – not after Julie and the cupcake. 

Then again, home wasn’t much better. At least not now. Gert had an epic meltdown months ago, and stormed out. Nico and Karolina had talked Chase into not running after her, but they all regretted that when Gert never came back. Chase said he thought Gert was still around because he could sort of feel her through Old Lace, but he had no clue where she was. He’d spent weeks barely sleeping while he and Lace looked for her. Eventually he ran out of places to look and now he was either working at his crappy job or arguing with Doombot about fixing Victor or just drinking until he passed out.

“No – velociraptors are a lot smaller - “

Molly spun around. That was Gert! She tried to look through the crowd, but there were too many people, and she couldn’t pick her out. She put on both straps of her backpack so she’d be balanced, and hopped on top of the railing surrounding the T-Rex model. She tuned out her teacher yelling at her and looked at the crowd – just in time to see Gert leaving for the next gallery.

She jumped down, evading the parent’s trying to grab her, and sprinted after Gert, grabbing her arm as she headed down the hall. Molly’s face fell as Gert looked down at her, and didn’t recognize her at all. “Gert?” she asked hopefully.

The girl shook her head, “Sorry, kid.” 

Molly took a closer look – and she looked so much like Gert – but she couldn’t be. She was at least two or three years older. Molly smiled and shrugged, “Sorry – you look a lot like a friend of mine.”

Not-Gert shrugged back and smiled, “No problem – I hope you find her.”

Molly nodded, but before she could say anything one of the teachers caught up with her and started dragging her back to the group. She overheard Gert talking to the guy with her, “That’s so weird – a couple of years ago a guy in the street thought I was someone named Gert – he ended up getting hit by a car while he was trying to catch up to me.”

“Was he ok?”

Molly missed Not-Gert’s answer as one of the parent’s started dragging her back to the bus. She pulled her phone out and sent a text to Chase saying that it was an emergency – he should be in his “lab” now, so it wouldn’t take him too long to get over here. She sat in the bus while she waited, keeping her eyes focused on the museum’s front door – and saw Not-Gert heading to the parking lot, talking to some buttface loser dude. Molly pried the back doors of the bus open and sprinted after her, shouting, “Hey!”

Not Gert turned around, a perplexed look on her face, “Um – hi again?”

Molly smiled as she saw Chase pull into the parking lot and head toward her. “Yeah,” she stalled, “I just wanted to say I’m sorry. You look so much like my friend, though, and she’s been missing for a couple of months.”

Not-Gert looked concerned, “Have you called the police?”

Molly stared at the girl. Definitely not a Gert answer. “Yeah – they couldn’t help us,” she lied.

“Hey, Molls!” Chase called as he parked the van behind Not-Gert and jogged over. “What’s the emergency?” Not-Gert turned to look at him and he froze in his tracks, staring at her. After a slightly too long and awkward pause he softly asked, “Gert?”

The girl shook her head, and narrowed her eyes, “I know you… wait – a couple of years ago – you were the guy who got hit by the car!”

The buttface-loser guy standing next to Not-Gert put a possessive arm around her waist and chuckled, “Well – I guess you finally know what happened to that guy – he survived.”

Chase noticed the guy for the first time, and the arm around the girl’s waist. He nodded, still staring at the girl, “Um yeah – sorry. You just look a lot like my girlfriend.”

The girl pointed over to Molly, “The girl she said is missing?”

Chase nodded, “Um, yeah – except she’s sort of not my girlfriend now? It’s kind of complicated.”

The guy smirked knowingly, “Dumped you and ran off, hunh?”

Molly glared at him, “NO! She never would have left us if she hadn’t -”

Chase quickly grabbed her and put a hand over her mouth to keep her from finishing. He started heading back to the van, “We’re sorry for bothering you,” he apologized, opening the door for Molly, picking her up and putting her in the passenger seat. Old Lace poked her nose between the two front seats and sniffed at Molly, becoming more agitated as she focused on a scent. The dinosaur tried to get past Molly, but Molly pushed her into the back, and pasted on a fake smile for Not-Gert and the buttface loser jerk.

Lace started throwing herself at the back door, trying to get out. Not-Gert looked at the van in alarm, and asked, “What do you have in there? An elephant?”

Chase smiled nervously and got back into the driver’s seat before Lace could get herself more noticed, “No – she just needs a walk...So – nice to meet you - “

“Sarah”

“Sarah – yeah – nice to meet you. We should be getting home.”

Molly stuck her head out the window, “I’m Molly! And he’s Chase!” Chase grabbed her jacket and pulled her back in the car, staring straight ahead as he pulled out of the parking spot. Molly looked in the mirror as they drove away, watching as Sarah smiled at them, and Molly was pretty sure she could see Sarah repeating Chase’s name before the buttface loser jerk pulled on her arm to get her attention.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She was interrupted by Molly’s voice shouting, “I got her!” There was a rustling in the brush at the edge of the yard to the north, and then Molly appeared. 
> 
> Holding a dinosaur up over her head. A deinonychus to be precise.
> 
> Sarah’s eyes widened, and she gasped out, “Oh, my god!” Both Molly and the dinosaur looked up and saw her for the first time. She heard Molly curse, and a reflexive admonishment from one of the two other girls. The dinosaur used the distraction to get away from Molly and begin scaling the side of the building. Sarah continued to stare for a moment too long, and by the time it occurred to her to flee back into her apartment and lock the door, it was too late. The dinosaur stood between her and the door. She felt her heart racing as the dinosaur approached and started to sniff at her. “Good girl?” she asked nervously.

Sarah curled up on her patio chair and sipped her tea, watching the city lights as they blinked in the warm night air. It would have been more relaxing if she could watch the stars, but she knew that option was off the table when she decided to move here. The tradeoffs were worth it though – she loved being here in L.A., where everything was so green and warm and alive. This was definitely a step in the right direction – and that direction was anything that got her away from the Swiss boarding school that had been her life ever since the accident.

She took a sip of tea and smiled. Molly had seemed like a sweet kid. All sorts of eager and so excited to think she’d found her lost friend. She suspected that Molly still somehow thought she must be this girl Gert – probably why she called her…brother? Or cousin? She was going to settle on brother until proven otherwise … that was why she’d probably called her brother Chase so he could get a look at her.

And Chase? Damn but if he wasn’t exactly the kind of guy she was into. Tall, blond, blue eyed and, based on the way he came running when Molly called, a nice guy. And she really liked nice guys. Barrett knew that too, which was probably why he was acting like a dick around him. It didn’t matter how many times she told Barrett she wasn’t interested, he still insisted on “protecting” her, and she knew he was doing that in the hopes that if he scared off all the other guys she’d end up with him. She was going to have to have another talk with him. If they hadn’t been friends since before the accident she would have left him behind years ago, but he’d been so amazing when she’d been recovering, and he still knew her meds better than she did. She owed him, but she didn’t want to get his hopes up.

There was a clatter on the ground below the balcony, and she heard an angry, “Shit!” She got up and cautiously looked over the railing – she was twenty feet up, but she’d heard so many stories about guns in America that she was overly cautious. There were two girls down there – maybe about her age – a goth Asian, and a blond girl...who was glowing. She dropped her tea cup in surprise, and both girls looked up at the sound of it breaking “Holy shit,” the goth girl muttered, “She does look like Gert!”

The lights around the blond girl suddenly blinked off as she realized she was being watched, and it took Sarah’s eyes a few seconds to adjust. “Sorry to bother you..um, Sarah, right?” the blond asked.

Sarah blinked a couple of times. She must have been mistaken – maybe what she saw was a flashlight? “Uh...yeah. You must be friends of Molly and Chase?”

“Yeah...sorry to bother you,” the goth girl apologized. “Chase’s...um, pet...ran away and we followed her down here.”

Sarah looked at them skeptically, “Why would she be here?”

“Dunno,” the goth girl hedged.

“We’re not stalking you – I promise!” the blond broke in, “She just sometimes likes to go hunting at night, and I guess there’s more for her to find around here.”

Sarah took a moment to consider the two girls smiling up at her nervously, and decided there was something about them she trusted. “Do you need any help?”

“NO!” both girls shouted at the same time, taking Sarah by surprise. “Lace can get nervous around strangers,” the goth girl explained. “We wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”

Sarah nodded, “Um, ok then, I guess -”

She was interrupted by Molly’s voice shouting, “I got her!” There was a rustling in the brush at the edge of the yard to the north, and then Molly appeared. 

Holding a dinosaur up over her head. A deinonychus to be precise.

Sarah’s eyes widened, and she gasped out, “Oh, my god!” Both Molly and the dinosaur looked up and saw her for the first time. She heard Molly curse, and a reflexive admonishment from one of the two other girls. The dinosaur used the distraction to get away from Molly and begin scaling the side of the building. Sarah continued to stare for a moment too long, and by the time it occurred to her to flee back into her apartment and lock the door, it was too late. The dinosaur stood between her and the door. She felt her heart racing as the dinosaur approached and started to sniff at her. “Good girl?” she asked nervously.

The dinosaur moved closer, continuing to sniff her, and then whined, moving her head under Sarah’s hand. Sarah blinked in surprise. It was like a dog wanted to be patted. Her hand shook as she moved it to the top of the dinosaur’s head, and the dinosaur responded by nuzzling her. She tentatively began patting her, and the dinosaur curled up at her feet, with what she could have sworn was a smile on her face. Sarah crouched down next to her, beginning to smile herself at how natural it felt to be patting such a dangerous animal. She’d have to ask Barrett if she’d ever had a big scary dog as a pet before the accident.

She saw a flash of light out of the corner of her eye and glanced over to the edge of the balcony in time to see the blond girl glowing (she knew it!), and flying, carrying the other two girls up with her. “So...Sarah, meet Old Lace,” the goth girl said, a tight smile on her face.

Sarah nodded, transfixed by the dinosaur, “She seems...friendly.”

“She thinks you’re Gert,” Molly explained. “She belonged to Gert, but Gert gave her to Chase when she died.” The other two girls closed their eyes and shook their heads. 

Sarah froze, and looked at them suspiciously, “I thought you said she was missing.”

The three girls looked at each other, and then the goth girl knelt down next to her. “Look – you’re patting a dinosaur, you’ve seen a girl who can lift that dinosaur over her head, and another one who can fly. We can explain the rest, but it’s going to get a bit more weird to get there. Can we come inside and talk?”

Sarah saw the three girls – and Old Lace – looking at her expectantly. They were there because they were looking for Old Lace, and Old Lace was there because she obviously thought she was this girl Gert. All of them seemed to think she was – or at least hope she was – this girl. She wasn’t her, and couldn’t be, but damn if she wasn’t intrigued. She nodded, “Come on inside. I’ll make some more tea.”

 

Sarah passed out mismatched mugs of chamomile tea, and glanced over to where Lace was chewing on a defrosted T-bone steak. Sorry, Barrett, she thought – keeping a deinonychus happily fed takes precedence over their weekly dinner. She sat in a recliner across from the couch where the three girls were sitting. “Should we call your friend Chase?”

“He’s asleep now, and he can be kind of hard to wake up,” the goth explained. Molly scoffed and looked like she wanted to say something, but quieted at a glare from the blond. The goth continued without even a glance at the other two, “My name is Nico, and this is Karolina,” she nodded at the blond next to her, who waved her hand and smiled. “You saw what Molly did, right?” Sarah nodded, “She’s a mutant. Karolina is an alien.” Karolina smiled and glowed for a second to emphasize Nico’s statement. Nico paused, and then looked Sarah straight in the eyes, “I’m a witch.”

Sarah raised an eyebrow, “A witch?” she asked skeptically. “You mean, like a wiccan or something?” Nico shook her head and frowned, hesitating for a moment before she pulled a small knife out of her pocket, and held it against her arm. “No – don’t -” Sarah started to protest, but it was done before she’d even finished speaking.

An unearthly voice echoed through the room, reciting an incantation, “When blood is shed, let the Staff of One emerge!” 

Sarah’s eyes widened again as a staff floated out of Nico’s body. She noticed the others were unphased by the staff’s appearance – Lace had even curled up for a nap. After a moment’s pause, Sarah asked, “Does it hurt when that happens?”

Nico looked startled, “You know, I’m not sure anyone has ever asked that before? But, no – doesn’t really hurt.”

“So….what does it do?”

“Magic.”

“Magic?”

Nico shrugged, “Yeah – I say a word, and, hopefully, there’s magic and it does what I want.”

“But she can’t use the same word twice,” Karolina added.

Sarah blinked at them, “That’s a pretty stupid rule.”

“No shit,” Nico agreed.

Sarah leaned back, crossing her arms. “So – what about Chase? Is he like a mutant or an alien or a cyborg or something?”

Molly shook her head, “No – Victor’s the cyborg.”

“Victor?” Sarah asked with an eyebrow raised.

Molly nodded, “He’s pretty cool – but he had some kind of accident and his body got destroyed, so only his head is left. But – it’s ok because Chase is fixing him.”

“Fixing him?”

“Building him a new body,” Nico filled in. “That’s what Chase does – he figures out how things work and builds new things.”

“So – is that like a mutant ability or something?”

“No, just what he does. And, he’s got a bond with Lace here.”

“Bond?”

“Psychic bond.” Nico sighed, and laid the staff across her lap. “Look – let me give you the abbreviated version from the beginning, ok?”

Sarah picked up her tea and looked at Nico skeptically, “Yeah, I think that would probably be for the best.”

“OK.” Nico took a breath, and dove in, “There were six of us – the three of us here, Gert, Chase and a guy named Alex. Our parents were part of a criminal organization, and we saw them murder a girl. We tried to stop them, and some...beings...that they worked for didn’t like it when we interfered. They ended up killing our parents, and Alex, who was actually working for his parents instead of with us. They put us into foster care after that, but we ran away and tried to fix some of the problems our parents caused.”

Nico took a sip of tea and looked at her friends who nodded encouragingly. “All of our parents had something they offered to the criminal organization. My parents were wizards, Karolina’s were aliens, Molly’s were mutants, and Chase’s were scientists. And Gert’s parents were time travelers.”

Sarah held up a hand for Nico to stop. “Time travelers?” The three girls looked at her and nodded. “You know, I watch the news – I’ve seen aliens and mutants and I’ve heard the stories about magic. But, time travel? Seriously?”

Nico nodded, and pointed at Lace with the staff. “Gert’s parents picked up Lace in the 87th century, and built in a psychic bond for the two of them.” 

The dinosaur looked up at the sound of her name and nuzzled Sarah’s leg affectionately. Sarah sighed. She was already down the rabbit hole, no sense in turning back now. “I guess with everything else, it’s not that far off. So – what happened to your friend Gert?”

Karolina leaned forward and took over the story, “A couple of years ago some of Alex’s friends used a spell to try to bring back Alex, but ended up bringing back his father instead. His father was going to kill Chase – as a sacrifice to those beings he worked for - but Gert got in the way and he ended up killing her instead. Before she died she transferred the psychic bond she had with Lace to Chase.”

“You said she was missing, not dead.”

Nico nodded, “Time travel, remember? It took Chase a couple of years, but he figured out Gert’s parents’ time travel machine – he went back to that night to stop her from being killed, but he didn’t time it right. Instead of saving her then, he was only able to get her out of there and bring her to now, where we were able to get her medical attention, and she survived.”

“So – that’s like standard queue-up-the-music, happily-ever-after stuff, isn’t it? Why’d they break up?”

Karolina sighed, “Gert was still the age she was when she died – 15. Chase is an adult now - “ Molly scoffed quietly “ - at least, as adult as he’s ever going to get. Two years of age difference when you’re 15 is doable. Four years is too much, or at least it is when one of them grew up and left the other behind. I had kind of hoped that in a couple of years they might get back together, but -”

“But, Gert disappeared.” Molly finished.

Sarah chewed on her lip and considered what they’d told her. She’d seen all the news stories about mutants and aliens, and had even met a couple of mutants and an Inhuman in school. Magic was still kind of a stretch for her – and time travel was even worse. But, how much could she argue with the evidence of an extremely affectionate dinosaur? 

And this girl, Gert? Was there a connection between them? Her memories from before the accident were still kind of fragmented, and the accident had taken her parents as well, so there was no way to tell if she was some distant relation to Gert. Maybe Barrett would have an idea? He had known her family before the accident. “Do you have a picture of her?” Sarah asked.

Molly nodded enthusiastically, and took off her backpack, fishing out a tablet. She brought it over to Sarah, and pulled up a photo of a group of six teenagers….and, if that was Gert, she now understood exactly why they were so confused. A couple of years younger, a few pounds heavier, glasses and purple hair? The girl in the photo was an exact replica of her in boarding school. Sarah swiped through Molly’s album and smiled at how happy they all looked. 

She did want to help them. She wasn’t sure what she could do, but it felt like helping them find their Gert would be like helping the awkward teenage version of herself that had struggled through years of being the odd girl out. And, with the way Gert and Chase looked at each other in those photos? What kind of monster would she be if she didn’t help two kids who obviously loved each other?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And this morning’s hangover was especially epic because the only thing worse than not having a clue where Gert was, was finding someone who he was pretty fucking sure was Gert and seeing her with another guy. It hurt the first time with Victor, and it was even worse with Barrett because at least he got why she was with Victor.
> 
> Yeah, she denied she was Gert, and maybe she didn’t even remember, but Lace knew, and he could feel the connection to her through Lace. He had no clue how she got from here to there, but her parents had fucking fail-safes built into fail-safes for the time machine, so maybe one of them had kicked in and hit a reset on her when she ran off in the time machine on her own that last time.
> 
> But how it happened didn’t matter. The important thing was she was alive, and she seemed pretty happy, and there was no way he was going to fuck that up for her. Maybe once he finished the latest version of a body for Victor that backstabbing cyborg could push Barrett out of the picture, but he wasn’t going to make a play for her. She deserved better than some barely above minimum wage half way to alcoholic high school dropout loser like him.

Chase heard the alarm, but couldn’t find it when he slammed his hand down on the nightstand, so he gave up and tried to pull the pillow over his face to keep the noise from drilling into his brain and making his hangover worse than it already was. 

And this morning’s hangover was especially epic because the only thing worse than not having a clue where Gert was, was finding someone who he was pretty fucking sure was Gert and seeing her with another guy. It hurt the first time with Victor, and it was even worse with Barrett because at least he got why she was with Victor.

Yeah, she denied she was Gert, and maybe she didn’t even remember, but Lace knew, and he could feel the connection to her through Lace. He had no clue how she got from here to there, but her parents had fucking fail-safes built into fail-safes for the time machine, so maybe one of them had kicked in and hit a reset on her when she ran off in the time machine on her own that last time.

But how it happened didn’t matter. The important thing was she was alive, and she seemed pretty happy, and there was no way he was going to fuck that up for her. Maybe once he finished the latest version of a body for Victor that backstabbing cyborg could push Barrett out of the picture, but he wasn’t going to make a play for her. She deserved better than some barely above minimum wage half way to alcoholic high school dropout loser like him.

The beeping became louder and he groaned as he threw the pillow off his face and half fell, half stumbled out of bed, eyes still closed while he felt around for the alarm. He finally found it buried in a pile of clothes under his bed and turned it off. He leaned back against the nightstand, digging the palms of his hands into his eyes. Yep – he was going to be even more of a mess than usual today. Nico would roll her eyes, Karolina would look at him sympathetically, and Molly would try to bully him into a long shower and a half a pot of coffee before dragging him out to try to find “Sarah”. And Victor would hover over them all, make a few snarky comments, and then hook himself up to the game console for the day.

He waited until the headache became slightly less blinding and then unsteadily pulled himself up to his feet and stumbled toward the kitchen. His eyes were half closed, but he knew the route by heart and didn’t notice he wasn’t alone until he heard her voice saying, “Hi – Chase, right?”

He froze. How the fuck was she here? He squinted at her, and God – yeah, it had to be her. Older and grown out of the awkward geeky snarky teenager that he’d fallen in love with, but still her. He cleared his throat and tried to smile, but it probably came across like a grimace. He reached for a couple of coffee cups, filling hers with a little bit of milk and way to much sugar, the way she always used to take it. He put her coffee in front of her and then sat down at the table and took a sip of his coffee, closing his eyes and waiting for the caffeine to kick in and start undoing the self-inflicted damage from the night before. 

She looked at the coffee skeptically before taking a sip, and her eyes widened, “How did you know how I like my coffee?”

He didn’t open his eyes and shrugged, “Took a chance - it’s how Gert made hers.”

She nodded and tried to paste on a smile, looking around the room uncomfortably – focusing on anything but the oh-so-very-her-type shirtless guy in front of her – and wondered where Molly and the others had gotten to. Lace stirred at her feet and moved across the floor to Chase, nudging his hand so he would pat her. Chase’s eyes were still closed, but she saw a smile at the corner of his mouth as he scratched the dinosaur along the side of her head. She took a closer look at the guy, and he really did look like he was suffering. “Are you ok?”

Chase paused, took in a deep breath, and then tried opening his eyes. He groaned a little and then closed them again. “I will be,” he muttered. “Just need a couple more quarts of coffee – thanks for making it.”

Sarah raised an eyebrow, “How did you know I made it?”

Chase wanted to tell her it was because she added a pinch of salt the way her father had taught her to, but he couldn’t do that to her. He couldn’t drag her back into this. And, he couldn’t lie to her, because he’d never had been able to. So he evaded the question. “Nico and me are the only ones who make coffee, and this isn’t the way she makes it.”

She looked at him skeptically. That answer had taken just a second too long, but it didn’t sound like a lie. He was hiding something, but she wasn’t sure what exactly. They sat in awkward silence while Chase finished his coffee, and she watched as he got up and put his cup in the sink. As he turned toward the door, she saw a tattoo on his abs with Gert’s name. “Nice tattoo,” she remarked.

She watched as he paused, and knew he was wondering how to respond. She really couldn’t blame him for that – she was his missing sort-of-girlfriend’s doppleganger and that had to be hard for him. He nodded his head, waved his hand in response and turned to head back to his room, but paused at the doorway. “So – no offense, but what are you doing here?”

Sarah smiled, got up, and took a step toward him, “Lace found me last night, and I started talking to your friends. Thought maybe I could help find your girlfriend.”

He nodded, his mouth drawn into a tight line, “She’s not my girlfriend. Not anymore.”

“Yeah – Nico and Karolina told me about the time machine and how it kind of screwed up your ages.”

He nodded and shrugged, “Yeah, that was part of it. We’d’ve probably broken up by now anyway – she was way smarter than me.” He smiled sadly, “Everyone used to wonder what she saw in me.”

Sarah stepped forward and reached out to put a hand on his bicep to try to comfort him, but he pulled away from her reflexively. He caught himself and smiled apologetically, and they locked eyes. She saw something in his eyes that seemed familiar, but she couldn’t place it. It looked like he was about to say something, but before he could she heard a whirring noise behind her and he snapped his mouth shut and looked away. He tilted his head down the hallway he’d come in from, “I’ve gotta get ready for work. Nice seeing you again.”

Sarah narrowed her eyes as she watched him disappear down the hall. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of him. She kept thinking back to the pictures that Molly had shown her the night before – to the way that Chase had been looking at Gert before she had been killed – like she was his whole world. Hell, he’d hacked into a time machine to get her back, even if it had kind of backfired on him. It was pretty obvious he was still in love with the girl, even if he thought he wasn’t going to get her back.

She wondered exactly why Gert had left – the girls hadn’t known many details – just that Gert had been upset and taken off. What had upset her? And, was she staying away on her own, or was someone keeping her from coming back? 

The whirring noise that had caught Chase’s attention grew louder and she heard a voice behind her ask, “Gert?”

She turned, getting ready to correct whoever this was too, but froze in place as she saw the head floating in the air in front of her. Her eyes grew wide, and she saw – Victor? Was that what Molly had said? She saw Victor look at her with surprise. She cleared her throat and nervously smiled, “Umm...hi. I’m Sarah, but I guess I look a lot like your friend.”

Victor raised an eyebrow. “Yeah – you could say that.”

He sounded skeptical, and maybe a little angry. She tried to explain, “The girls explained to me about your friend, and I wanted to try to help find her.”

“Mm-hm”, Victor nodded, staring at her without blinking.

Sarah pasted a smile on her face and tried to push back the panic she was starting to feel. She edged toward the doorway. “Um...I just need to use the restroom – so...bye!” She resisted the urge to run down the hall but did lean back against the door to make sure no one would open it behind her. Having someone describe a disembodied cyborg head was one thing. Having the head floating in front of you and look like it was deciding if you were a candidate for dissection was one of the weirder things she’d ever experienced. And that included Mardi Gras in Amsterdam.

She heard the whirring sound coming down the hall and then heard it stop nearby, followed by Chase shouting, “The fuck, dude! Learn how to knock.”

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me she was back?”

“First off – I didn’t know she was here until I got up this morning. Second – that’s not Gert – her name is Sarah -”

“Bullshit – you know that’s her.”

“Look, Mr. Roboto, she says her name is Sarah.”

“My scans say different.”

“You fucking scanned her? Did you even bother to, you know, ask for permission?”

“Fuck off, Stein – you’d have done the same thing if you could...except- you didn’t have to, did you? You’re hooked up to Lace’s brain, and you know its her, don’t you?”

There was a pause, and Chase’s voice was much quieter. “Lace thinks it’s her, and I can sort of feel her connected to Lace, but that doesn’t mean anything. It could just mean that our Gert is somewhere close.”

“She is close. You know Sarah is Gert,” Victor insisted

There was another pause, and Chase’s voice was angrier, “What I think doesn’t matter. It’s what Sarah thinks that matters. And Sarah has a real life with friends and – I don’t know, school? A job? You know Gert is better than this just as much as I do. Living down here with us was holding her back. If she is Gert, she’s better off where she is now then she’d be if she was with us.”

“I….” there was a pause and she heard a soft thud- maybe Victor landed on something? - “I can’t argue with that.”

Their voices quieted, too low for her to hear, until she heard Chase announce, “I gotta get to work,” with a definite I-need-to-get-out-of-here tone. The door slammed a couple of seconds later, followed by that same whirring noise that she figured meant Victor was leaving Chase’s room. 

Sarah let out a breath and leaned her head back against the door. She needed to think this through logically. Why would whatever scans Victor had run – and thank you Chase for calling him on not asking first – why would the scans make him think she was Gert? And, Lace obviously thought she was Gert as well? This was beyond wanting to help them find their friend now. She needed to know why she was so connected to this girl, and she wouldn’t know that until she found her. 

She needed to break this down logically. Gert had left because she was upset. If she hadn’t returned it was either because she didn’t want to yet or because something was stopping her from returning. But, it seemed likely that Gert would know how broken up at least Molly would be by her leaving, and she would have left word that she was ok.

So – that left something – or someone – stopping her from returning. Lace had no problems finding her halfway across LA, and if Lace hadn’t been able to track her down, maybe it was because it wasn’t a matter of where she was, but when she was. Because there was a freaking time machine involved.

That gave her a working theory: Gert was upset and took off in the time machine, but something stopped her from returning. And that made her next stop the time machine to look for some trace of where she might have taken it.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His tone was angry again, and she let her frustration get the better of her. She slammed down the notebook and glared back at him, “Look – I’m just trying to help, ok? What the hell problem do you have with me?”
> 
> He was about to say something, but then checked himself and closed his mouth. After a moment of consideration he answered, “I’m angry at Gert for leaving. Chase thought she didn’t come back because someone stopped her, but she can do no wrong as far as he’s concerned.”
> 
> “And you know better?” she guessed.
> 
> “I know she had to make a decision, and she bailed on us instead.”
> 
> Sarah narrowed her eyes, “What kind of decision?”
> 
> Victor met her eyes for a second and then looked away. “Doesn’t matter now. Her taking off was all we needed to know.”

Sarah frowned as she scrolled through the display hooked up to the time machine’s log. The entries in the log were in sequential order – furthest back in the past to furthest out in the future – and had absolutely no indication of which ones had been accessed recently. Reaching for a knob to fine-tune the scrolling she swore under her breath as she knocked down a notebook to the floor of the machine, and paused as she picked it back up. It was filled with scrawled notes in what she was willing to bet was Chase’s handwriting. Which meant he’d already looked through the logs and come up blank.

“What the hell are you doing?”

She looked up from the notebook and saw Victor floating in front of her again. Having seen him floating around for most of the day, she was significantly less weirded out by him than she had been that morning. “Checking the logs, but it looks like someone beat me to it.”

He landed on top of the machine and glared at her again, “Yeah – Chase went through them and he didn’t find anything.” 

His tone was angry again, and she let her frustration get the better of her. She slammed down the notebook and glared back at him, “Look – I’m just trying to help, ok? What the hell problem do you have with me?”

He was about to say something, but then checked himself and closed his mouth. After a moment of consideration he answered, “I’m angry at Gert for leaving. Chase thought she didn’t come back because someone stopped her, but she can do no wrong as far as he’s concerned.”

“And you know better?” she guessed.

“I know she had to make a decision, and she bailed on us instead.”

Sarah narrowed her eyes, “What kind of decision?”

Victor met her eyes for a second and then looked away. “Doesn’t matter now. Her taking off was all we needed to know.”

Sarah leaned back and crossed her arms, “It would probably help figure out where she went if we knew what she was thinking, so - what exactly was this decision she bailed on?” He looked back at her warily. Since Victor really wasn’t giving her any solid details, she took a chance he was hiding something, and tried, “Or maybe I should ask Molly or Nico or Karolina?”

Victor all but growled back at her. She raised an eyebrow and waited patiently. He finally sighed, and looked down. “I’m going to get back to what I was before – Chase is finishing up a body for me….and with everything going on with Gert and Chase, they were sort of broken up….“

She had a pretty good idea of where this was going, “And you got closer to her?” 

He floated back up from the console to eye level with her, “Doesn’t matter now. Wouldn’t have lasted with us anyway – I think I was just a rebound for her.”

“Because she wasn’t over Chase?”

“I still have no clue what she sees in him.”

Sarah shrugged, “He is kind of cute - “ 

Victor rolled his eyes and muttered, “Loca...”

“And, he seems like a good guy – I mean, Molly said she needed help the other day and he came running.”

“Yeah, I guess he is a good guy,” Victor conceded.

Sarah smirked, “And it’s kind of obvious he’s still in love with her. Guys in love are always more attractive.”

Victor was about to say something, but stopped himself and frowned, “Yeah - he is still in love with her.” He sighed and closed his eyes dejectedly, “Fuck. I really am kind of a bastard, you know?”

“That why you didn’t want the girls to know?”

Victor grimaced, “I really don’t have a good track record with women. I was with Nico and kind of cheated on her.”

“Kind of cheated?” 

“I fell for a redhead and started chasing after her right in front of Nico. Never slept with her or anything - “

“But, it still counts as cheating.”

“Yeah, it does. And if Molly thinks I did anything to hurt Chase? She’ll kick me so hard they’ll have to pull me out of orbit.”

Sarah sat down in the time machine, “You wouldn’t be the first friends that let a girl come between you.”

Victor set down on the console so he was at eye level with her again, “It’s not that simple. They sort of weren’t together, but they still loved each other. The age thing kind of came between them, so we thought Chase would be ok with her moving on...” he paused and floated back up, putting some distance between them, “Actually – no, that’s not true. We really didn’t think about Chase at all. We didn’t think about what it would do to him if he found us together.”

Sarah sighed at the predictability of it all, but hoped more details would give her a lead on Gert, so she prompted, “And he found you together?”

“Yeah. My god...the look on his face...it was like we ripped his heart out. But, he just turned around and walked away – didn’t say a fucking word. ”

“So, what did you and Gert do?”

Victor laughed bitterly, “We tried to talk to him, but he avoided us for days. Gert finally ended up cornering him in his lab and they had a fight. I got there at the end – Chase had stormed out and Gert was crying. I tried to ask her about it, but she didn’t say a word, and just took off in the time machine.” 

Sarah crossed her arms and took a moment to digest what Victor said had happened. It was probably a bad thing that all of this just made her even more attracted to Chase. “Any idea where she went?”

“There were a few places that Gert had talked about – and a couple that she and I had visited, but Chase and I checked them and she wasn’t there.”

“What’d Chase say the fight was about?”

Victor frowned, “He told her that he needed some space – at least that’s what he told me. With the way Gert was crying when she left, I think it finally hit her that she broke his heart.” Victor laughed humorlessly, “That was always one of their problems – I don’t think Gert believed that Chase loved her as much as he did. Not until that night, at least.”

Sarah got up and leaned against the outside of the time machine. “So – however messy it was, things were over with Chase, but she still didn’t choose you?”

“We were over as soon as Chase found us. We were both just lonely, and that’s not enough to get us past hurting him, you know?”

Sarah closed her eyes and sighed. There was the possibility that Gert decided to leave to get away from them both. She kind of understood needing space to get your head together – it was how she had spent the first couple of years after she lost her parents. Still – time machine. She should have been able to take whatever time she needed and still make it back before her friends got worried.

She picked up the notebook and leafed through it – there were a few dozen settings that had been marked as visited but more than twice that many that weren’t marked. This was going to be a pretty big time sink and she needed to clear her calendar. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and sent a text to Barrett – he wouldn’t be happy, but she needed to find this girl, so their weekly dinner was going to have to get postponed.

“So – I have a confession, “ Victor began as she finished up the text and began looking through Chase’s workbench for a pen.

“You scanned me?” she guessed what he was about to say.

He raised his eyebrows, “Well, yeah - “

“I overheard you and Chase this morning. You scanned me, and think I’m Gert. Chase sort of thinks I am her, but even if I am, he wants me back in my nice safe life away from here.”

“Well...yeah.”

Sarah shook her head, “What’s so dangerous about here, though? Except for the angsty love triangles, it seems pretty safe.”

Victor chuckled, “Hang around long enough and you’ll see.”

 

 

Chase saw the beaten up wreck of the car he was looking for on top of four other equally mashed up cars. He grabbed onto the frame of the car under it and hoisted himself up high enough to get a look at interior of his target. Steering wheel from a 1965 Impala Super Sport Coupe – he’d found another one a couple of days ago but it hadn’t been in great shape so he’d kept it on his list. It was the last part Dr. Kaplan needed for the car she was restoring as a wedding present for her son, and if Chase could get it shipped out to her today, then it would be ready in time for the wedding. 

Then again, with both grooms being sort-of-Avengers, the wedding date was kind of a moving target. Tommy had dropped by to see Molly a couple of weeks ago and had just rolled his eyes when they asked about his sort-of-brother’s wedding. But, they’d been promised invitations to the wedding whenever it did happen, so he figured he’d see the final product of all the parts he’d been sending out at some point or another. As long as Billy and Teddy didn’t elope, at least.

“Ola, Chase!”

Chase leaned out of the car’s window, grabbing the roof for balance as the entire stack of cars shifted around him. He saw Mr. Hernandez on the ground looking for him. “Up here!” he called back down.

Mr. Hernandez looked up and shook his head, “Idiota – you’re going to get yourself killed!”

Chase finished unfastening the steering wheel and hopped back down to the ground, “Been tried, and hasn’t stuck yet, Mr. H.” He handed the steering wheel over with a smile, “And Dr. Kaplan has her last part.”

Mr. Hernandez rolled his eyes and headed back to the office, motioning for Chase to follow. “Someone wants to see you.”

Chase pulled a rag out of his pocket and wiped his hands off. “Someone?” he asked skeptically. Mr. Hernandez didn’t answer, but motioned more insistently for him to follow. As they turned the corner to the front of the office Chase stopped short and stared. A frown crossed his face as he curtly acknowledged his uncle, “Hunter.”

Hunter Stein smiled broadly and tried to move in for a hug but stopped when Chase didn’t budge. He then held his hand out for a handshake, but shrugged when he couldn’t get that either. “So, Chase - ” he started.

“What do you want?” Chase asked coldly.

Hunter sighed, and reached for his briefcase, holding a folder out to Chase, “I just want a second opinion on a new design.”

Chase continued to stare at him blankly, “Don’t you have people you pay for that?”

“Yes I do. But you can pick out design flaws in minutes that take them weeks to find. And, I will pay you for it. I’m sure that Molly could use a new dress or something.”

Chase closed his eyes and sighed. Yeah, actually Molly could use a lot of things. She’d break his arm if he tried to hand her a dress, but she did need new clothes, and she’d just about hit him over the head with hints about a soccer camp she wanted to go to. 

He opened his eyes and looked over at Mr. Hernandez who nodded and smiled at him encouragingly. Mr. H hadn’t been at all shy about telling him that he was an idiot for pushing away the rich uncle who wanted to give him a job. Maybe he was an idiot. That did seem to be the opinion of most people who’d met him.

Chase glared at Hunter, wondering if he really needed the help or if this was his way of checking up on him. Didn’t matter though – money was money and Molly was growing out of her clothes almost as soon as she got them. He grabbed the folder from Hunter and his eyes widened as he looked at the first diagram. “So – did you want this to explode as soon as you powered it on? Because I can’t think of any other reason why you’d want to channel parallel vibranium batteries through an adamantium casing set in...” he checked the diagram again, “is that carbon fiber reinforced graphite? Seriously?”

 

 

Chase yawned as he headed back to the van. Thanks to spending an hour drawing red lines through Hunter’s plans, It was a little later than usual. But, it had been a good day picking parts and he’d gotten cash from Hunter, so he’d splurged and gotten food for everyone from the taco truck two blocks down from the scrapyard – including vegan for Karolina and Gert’s...no – Sarah’s – favorite – mahi mahi tacos.

Crap – he was tired. He’d need to avoid her when he got back so he didn’t slip up.

He shifted the bag to one hand and fished in his pocket for the keys, but paused as he was about to unlock the van – were those footsteps? There was a lot of noise from the scrapyard, and they weren’t too far from the highway, but he could’ve sworn he heard footsteps, and it wouldn’t be the first time someone got mugged in this neighborhood. He looked around, but didn’t see anything, so he chalked it up to being over-tired, because it had been a fucking long day.

He was about to climb into the van when he felt something sting his neck. He brought his hand up to slap at whatever it was, and then rubbed at the spot for a second. He shook his head to try to clear it, but everything around him began to get blurry and dark. He reached out to grab on to the door handle, but it slipped out of his hand, and he fell against the van, sliding down as his legs gave out and he collapsed on the street.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She felt her phone buzz and pulled it out of her pocket, her eyes widening in alarm when she saw the ID - Hunter Stein. It was never good news when he called. She stepped into the next room and quietly answered, “What? What’s wrong?”
> 
> “Nico – Chase is in the hospital.”

Nico smiled as she reached over to snag a french fry from Karolina’s plate while Karolina was distracted with telling Sarah about time traveling a century back in New York City. That hadn’t been her favorite trip. On the one hand she had an ancestor torturing her into leveling up on her Staff of One skills and on the other she stood by while her sort-of-boyfriend at the time chased after a redhead. Victor really could kind of be a bastard sometimes. Still, it beat Murderworld.

She felt her phone buzz and pulled it out of her pocket, her eyes widening in alarm when she saw the ID - Hunter Stein. It was never good news when he called. She stepped into the next room and quietly answered, “What? What’s wrong?”

“Nico – Chase is in the hospital.”

Nico felt her heart stop. Not again. This couldn’t be happening again. He’d barely survived the last time when Deathlocket had hit him at point blank range. “What happened?” She asked hoarsely.

“They’re not sure yet – they found him unconscious next to his van. They said it looked like an OD.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it! He may be halfway to an alcoholic, but you know he doesn’t do drugs – he doesn’t want to set a bad example for Molly.”

“I know that Nico – they….look, can you guys get down to Good Samaritan? He’s going to want all of you here when he wakes up. I’ve got a private room for him, and a security detail, so you can sneak in Victor and Lace.”

Nico closed her eyes and nodded, “Yeah – we’re heading out now.”

 

Sarah stood at the back of the crowd gathered around Chase’s hospital bed. She really didn’t belong there. They were all acting like she was Gert, and she didn’t have the heart to argue the point with them under the circumstances. If they needed her as a sort-of-Gert, she could do that until Chase was back on his feet.

She looked at the group – Karolina was holding Nico, and she couldn’t believe it took her this long to pick up that they were a couple. Victor hovered near the foot of the bed, while Molly sat in the chair next to it, holding Chase’s hand. Lace was on the other side, resting her head on his legs. She slipped out of the room unnoticed, past the guards and watched Hunter at the nurse’s desk arguing with a doctor. She caught a couple of words and it sounded like the doctor was trying to convince Hunter that it was a drug overdose, but they just hadn’t figured out what yet. Based on his body language, Hunter seemed to be disagreeing rather vehemently.

She jumped as a hand touched her shoulder and asked, “Sarah?” 

Sarah blinked in surprise as she saw Barrett, “How’d you know I was here?”

Barrett shrugged, “You’ve got that chat app on your phone? You know, the one that includes your location in your profile? I tried to send you a message when I got your text, but you didn’t answer and your profile came up here, so I got worried.”

She glanced at her phone – she thought she had uninstalled the app, but there it was so she must have been mistaken. She nodded, “Yeah – sorry.” He looked like he was waiting for an explanation, and he’d be a lot easier to deal with if she gave him one. “So – you remember that girl Molly yesterday? Well, her friend Chase’s pet apparently thinks I’m their friend too, and she ran away and tracked me down last night. I started talking with Molly and a couple of her friends, and decided to try to help them find the missing girl. While we were working on it, we got a call that Chase was hurt, so we came down here.”

Barrett put on a look that Sarah knew was his way of trying to fake being concerned about someone he didn’t like. “Is he going to be ok?”

Sarah shrugged, “Not sure. They’re still trying to figure out exactly what’s wrong.” 

Barrett frowned, “Probably drugs. He kind of looked like a druggie.”

Sarah stared at Barrett blankly. He could be such a fucking asshole sometimes. She knew Chase had problems – he’d been hungover that morning – but everyone who did know him said drugs weren’t a possibility. “It wasn’t drugs,” she said in a tone she hoped he understood meant that he shouldn’t argue with her.

He put up his hands in surrender, and muttered, “Sorry- just a guess. But – speaking of medication -” He reached into his jacket pocket and handed a pill bottle to her.

She took it and glared at him. She’d told him more than once that she didn’t want him in her apartment when she wasn’t there, but it was like talking to a brick wall. She tried to keep a lid on her anger as she asked, “Did you go into my apartment and take this?”

Barrett looked apologetic, but Sarah wasn’t buying it. If he really was sorry, he’d have stopped the first time she asked. “I thought if you were in the hospital, they might need to know your meds, ok?,” he tried to explain. “And, anyway – it’s about time for your afternoon dose, isn’t it?”

Sarah pasted on a smile and put the bottle in her pocket. “I’ll take care of it later. Why don’t you head out – I’m good here.” Barrett shook his head and she knew he was going to say he wanted to stay there with her, but it had been a fucking stressful day, and he was getting on her last nerve. She just wanted him gone. “Please – just go, ok?”

Barrett sighed, “One condition. Take your meds, and I’ll go. I know if you don’t before I leave you’ll just forget about it.”

Sarah glared at him, and pulled two pills out of the bottle. He smiled and got her a cup of water from a dispenser in the room, and watched as she swallowed them down. “Happy?” she asked with a saccharine smile.

Barrett smirked, “Ecstatic. Text me when you know what’s going on.” He gave her a peck on the cheek as he passed her.

Sarah grimaced, and watched him leave. Once the elevator doors had closed behind him she opened her fist and tossed the pills into a trash can. Without the drugs she sometimes got migraines that were so bad she would be cowering in a corner of a dark room, but with the drugs she wasn’t as sharp as she should be, so taking them wasn’t an option right now. Not with all the evidence trying to convince her she was Gert.

She glanced over to the desk and saw Hunter talking to someone that wasn’t dressed in hospital scrubs - a black kid, about her age, with a tall afro. When the kid turned to leave he glanced at her, did a double take, and then stared at her with his mouth open. He walked over to her, but before he could say anything she jumped in, “Let me guess – you think I’m Gert?” He nodded, and she added, “And you’re Alex? That’s what I’d guess from the pictures Molly showed me.”

“Uh – yeah. So – if you’re not Gert, who are you?”

“I’m Sarah – but,” she nodded her head over to Chase’s room, “they pretty much all think I’m their friend.”

Alex shrugged, “Well, people keep coming back from the dead – it can get a little hard to keep track.”

Hunter shoved his phone in his pocket and walked over to the two of them, standing between them with a hand on each of their shoulders, “OK – I’ve got blood samples being sent over to my labs, and we’re getting a room set up for him at the house – fully staffed and ready by the time we get him there.”

Alex looked at him skeptically, “I don’t think Chase would want that.”

Hunter shrugged, “Well, I’ll be very glad when he’s awake and can tell me that himself - but, until then I’m pretty sure the others will agree to getting him the additional medical attention.” He squeezed Alex’s shoulder, “You should go, though – you’re even less welcome than I am. See what you can find on the security camera tapes for the alley.”

Alex nodded in agreement, “On it, boss,” and turned to leave, “Nice meeting you, Sarah.”

Sarah crossed her arms and waited until Alex was out of earshot. “So – you hired Alex? I’m sure that went over really well.”

“Well,” he hesitated, “I may not have exactly told them that Alex is working for me.”

Sarah stared at him in surprise, “But, you are going to tell them before you take Chase out of the hospital, right? Because, they do have a right to know – from what I understand, Alex did nearly get Chase drowned.”

Hunter sighed tiredly and rubbed his eyes, “Yeah – I’ll tell them. I’m not getting rid of him, though. Kid’s a fucking genius at figuring things out, and I think we’re going to need that to get Chase back.” He held a hand out toward the room in invitation, and Sarah quietly slipped into the room ahead of him. Everyone turned to them, hoping for news, and Sarah put a little distance between herself and the argument she knew was going to start once Alex came up. She went around to the side of the bed Lace was on, scratching her head as she passed, and then looked down at Chase, brushing away a few hairs that had fallen across his face.

She briefly wondered if the air was dry, because she could have sworn she felt a spark when she touched Chase’s skin. She tried to move her head to look at the others, but it felt inexplicably heavy, and the next thing she knew she was falling toward the bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Preview of the next chapter:
> 
> “Hey – babe – could you hand me the needle-nose pliers? Should have a green handle, somewhere near my left foot.”
> 
> Sarah’s eyes shot open. She was in a chair in front of a window – and – holy shit! - was this a spaceship? She saw the ocean and sky outside, but it definitely looked like something out of one of those space movies Barrett used to drag her to. She stood up and stared at the room around her in amazement, barely registering the voice coming from under the console.
> 
> “Gert? You ok? You usually don’t zonk out like that until after I start talking about rewiring the power couplings.” 
> 
> Sarah blinked. Chase was standing in front of her, gently holding her by her upper arms to make sure she wasn’t going to fall down. He was a couple of years younger, with shorter hair and no beard and it was probably the first time she’d ever seen him with a real smile on his face. “What’s going on? Where are we?” she asked.
> 
> Chase looked at her with confusion, but then the smile dropped from his face as he realized she wasn’t Gert. “Sarah?” he asked. She nodded, and he forced a quick smile, stepping away from her and turning back to the console. By the time he turned around to face her again, he was back to version of himself she’d seen that morning. He leaned back against the console, “This,” he waved a hand to indicate their surroundings, “is the Leapfrog – my parents built him, and we sort of inherited him after they died. He died in an explosion around when I saw you and got nailed by that car.” He crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow, “The question is – how are you here?”
> 
> She shrugged, “I’m...I’m not sure. Where is here?”
> 
> “Somewhere in my head, I guess. I must be really drunk, though - “
> 
> “You’re in a coma,” Sarah interrupted.
> 
> Chase closed his eyes and sighed wearily, leaning back against the console, “Again?”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Is that’s what’s happening here? Lace is connecting us?”
> 
> “It’s my best guess, yeah. You’ll probably be out of here once they wake you up. Hopefully the connection to Lace will stick, because otherwise if I don’t make it then she’d die with me.”
> 
> “Don’t talk like that! You’re going to be fine!”
> 
> Chase smiled sadly and leaned back against the console again. “Best case scenario? I recover. I can’t count on that, though, and I need to make sure Lace is going to be ok without me. So – if the transfer worked – you are now the proud owner of a third hand dinosaur. Mazel-tov!” Sarah raised an eyebrow and Chase shrugged, “It’s what Gert would have said.”
> 
> Sarah sighed and sunk down into the co-pilot chair near Chase. He was right. There was a chance he would die, and if she didn’t ask now she might never get a chance to. “Chase – am I Gert?”

_“Hey – babe – could you hand me the needle-nose pliers? Should have a green handle, somewhere near my left foot.”_

_Sarah’s eyes shot open. She was in a chair in front of a window – and – holy shit! - was this a spaceship? She saw the ocean and sky outside, but it definitely looked like something out of one of those space movies Barrett used to drag her to. She stood up and stared at the room around her in amazement, barely registering the voice coming from under the console._

_“Gert? You ok? You usually don’t zonk out like that until after I start talking about rewiring the power couplings.”_

_Sarah blinked. Chase was standing in front of her, gently holding her by her upper arms to make sure she wasn’t going to fall down. He was a couple of years younger, with shorter hair and no beard and it was probably the first time she’d ever seen him with a real smile on his face. “What’s going on? Where are we?” she asked._

_Chase looked at her with confusion, but then the smile dropped from his face as he realized she wasn’t Gert. “Sarah?” he asked. She nodded, and he forced a quick smile, stepping away from her and turning back to the console. By the time he turned around to face her again, he was back to version of himself she’d seen that morning. He leaned back against the console, “This,” he waved a hand to indicate their surroundings, “is the Leapfrog – my parents built him, and we sort of inherited him after they died. He died in an explosion around when I saw you and got nailed by that car.” He crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow, “The question is – how are you here?”_

_She shrugged, “I’m...I’m not sure. Where is here?”_

_“Somewhere in my head, I guess. I must be really drunk, though - “_

_“You’re in a coma,” Sarah interrupted._

_Chase closed his eyes and sighed wearily, leaning back against the console, “Again?”_

_That….wasn’t the reaction she’d expected. “Again?” Sarah repeated._

_Chase shrugged, “I was in a coma for a couple of days after getting hit by the car. Deathlocket took me out for a couple of weeks. Waking up again isn’t so bad, but the PT is a bitch.” He hopped up onto the console and sat cross legged, “So – what took me out this time?”_

_Sarah shook her head, “We’re not sure. They found you unconscious next to your van. The doctors think you OD’d.“_

_Chase hopped off the console, his hands balled into fists, “No – no fucking way. I spent months getting off those fucking pain meds - TWICE - and there is no way I’d ever let Molly think it was ok to play around with that shit.”_

_Sarah took a step back in surprise in the change from the laid back Chase she’d seen so far to the Chase she was seeing now. “That’s pretty much what all your friends told them.”_

_He closed his eyes and nodded. “Sorry, “ he apologized, “I didn’t mean to jump down your throat.” He crossed his arms again and began pacing. “What happened?”_

_“No idea. Hunter has someone looking at the security cameras to see if they recorded something. Do you remember anything?”_

_Chase shook his head, “Not really. I was pretty fucking tired, but Hunter gave me cash for a job, so I made a food run and got tacos for everyone. I think maybe something stung me? But, nothing past that.” He leaned on the console and looked out at the ocean for a few minutes and then sighed heavily. “So – if I’m in a coma again, that explains why I’m here reliving my greatest hits. Why are you here though? Or – are you even really here? Am I just imagining you?”_

_“As far as I’m concerned you’re not imagining me, but I suppose if I was a figment of your imagination that’s exactly what I’d say.” She saw Chase crack a smile. “But, I honestly don’t know why I’m here. I was in your hospital room, and the next thing I know I’m here.”_

_Chase frowned for a moment and then raised an eyebrow, “Was Lace there?”_

_Sarah nodded, “Yeah I was patting her.”_

_Chase sighed, “I guess Lace thinks you’re close enough to let you in.” He shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged, explaining, “When Gert transferred her connection to Lace over to me it was like we were in each other’s heads. It didn’t last long, because, you now, she was dying, but we were connected through Lace.”_

_Sarah narrowed her eyes – she’d guessed Gert’s dying had done a number on Chase, but dying while they had a dinosaur-bridged psychic connection was so much worse. “Is that’s what’s happening here? Lace is connecting us?”_

_“It’s my best guess, yeah. You’ll probably be out of here once they wake you up. Hopefully the connection to Lace will stick, because otherwise if I don’t make it then she’d die with me.”_

_“Don’t talk like that! You’re going to be fine!”_

_Chase smiled sadly and leaned back against the console again. “Best case scenario? I recover. I can’t count on that, though, and I need to make sure Lace is going to be ok without me. So – if the transfer worked – you are now the proud owner of a third hand dinosaur. Mazel-tov!” Sarah raised an eyebrow and Chase shrugged, “It’s what Gert would have said.”_

_Sarah sighed and sunk down into the co-pilot chair near Chase. He was right. There was a chance he would die, and if she didn’t ask now she might never get a chance to. “Chase – am I Gert?”_

_Chase stared at her for a moment, and then looked down at the floor while he put together what he wanted to say. He got down onto one knee in front of her so he was at her eye-level, “The truth is, I don’t know. Lace and Victor think you are. You feel the same in here, “ he pointed to his head, “as she did. But, even if you were Gert at some point, you’re Sarah now. You gotta be you, and it’s your decision if you want to find out if you used to be her, and how you got from her to you. If you do want to know, I’m a little preoccupied, but I’m sure Victor can help.”_

_Sarah held his gaze, “He told me about him and Gert.”_

_Chase closed his eyes and sat down on the floor, leaning back with his legs stretched out. “Yeah. Walking in on that was pretty traumatic.”_

_“He said that you and Gert had a fight.”_

_Chase nodded. “Yeah. I mean, I get why she’s attracted to him – he’s way smarter than me, and he can keep up with her where I just get left behind. They’re kind of perfect for each other, and I always knew she was going to outgrow me. But I can’t help that it hurts, because I’m always going to love her and it’s hard letting go. I just needed some space, you know? Needed to step away because it was going to take a while for it to stop feeling like there’s a knife twisting in my gut whenever I saw either of them. So, I asked her for some time away from them.”_

_“Victor said there was shouting and you stormed out of there.”_

_Chase huffed out a laugh, “I didn’t say I asked very nicely.”_

_Sarah smiled, but then winced as she felt a throbbing in her head. “There’s something wrong...”_

_Chase leaned forward and took her hand, “They’re probably trying to wake you up. Keep an eye on Lace for me – she likes dry dog food, and she’s not very picky. Tell Molly that if she finishes reading me the Lord of the Rings this time, then do Harry Potter next, because Hunger Games is a hard no. And tell Hunter that if he sticks anything in me that can be remote controlled, I’m going to rip it out and shove ----”_

 

Sarah winced at the light and took a deep breath. Everyone’s face looked worried, and it took her a second to realize they were worried about her. She tried to speak, but had trouble breathing and coughed. Karolina handed her a glass of water and she took a few sips while her pulse rate went back to normal. She looked over at Chase, who hadn’t moved a muscle, and then at Lace who looked at her with what she swore was a raised eyebrow. She reached out and scratched Lace’s neck, and felt what sounded like a purr in the back of her head. She stared at the dinosaur and raised one hand. Lace leaned back, and raised a talon opposite her. 

She heard Nico mutter, “No no no no.”

Molly looked at Nico in confusion, “It’s ok, Neeks, Sarah’s going to be ok.”

“He transferred the fucking dinosaur over to you, didn’t he?” Nico whispered hoarsely.

Sarah frowned and nodded, “He said he wanted to make sure she was ok if he didn’t make it.”

Nico sat on the bed, covering her face in her hands, and Karolina enveloped her in a hug. Molly looked around in confusion, “He’s just being careful!” Molly insisted, “He’s going to be ok!”

Sarah reached out for Molly’s hand and squeezed it, reassuring her, “He’s not giving up – said that waking up from a coma wasn’t bad, but that PT was a bitch.” She heard Nico groan and fondly mutter what sounded like, “Idiot!” 

“Did he say what happened?” Hunter asked.

“He didn’t know. Said it felt like something stung him.” Hunter nodded, and grabbed Chase’s chart, reading through it to look for anything that matched that. “He also said that if you put anything in him that could be controlled remotely, he would rip it out, and he would shove it – well, we got cut off, but you can fill in the blanks.” She saw a smirk on Hunter’s face as he leafed through the chart.

“Anything else?” Karolina asked.

“Just told me that Lace likes dry dog food, and asked Molly to read Harry Potter to him next because Hunger Games is a hard no.”

Nico chuckled, wiped away a tear and agreed, “Amen to that!”

“Hah!” Hunter tapped at the chart, “Right here! Insect bite on the back of the neck!” He rushed out of the room taking the chart with him.

The room was silent after Hunter’s departure until Nico observed, “He’s been stung by bees before.”

“A lot more than bees,” Molly agreed. “He’s not allergic or anything.”

“So, maybe he got stung by an irradiated bee?” Karolina suppressed a smile.

“Yes! Bee-man!” Molly laughed.

Victor raised an eyebrow, “I’m not sure he’d look very good in yellow and black.”

“Those are Wolverine’s colors anyway,” Nico added.

“Not any more,” Molly corrected.

“Stinger,” Karolina announced. “I think he’d like that a lot better than Bee-Man.”

Molly laughed loudly, but stopped when she looked at Chase and didn’t see him smiling back at her. He wasn’t moving, and it was exactly like it had been both times before when no one was sure if he was going to live. And it wasn’t fair, because he was supposed to be safe now. Him and Gert were supposed to wait a couple of years until she was old enough, except they didn’t have to anymore because Gert was Sarah now, and Sarah was old enough, and then it could go back to being like it was when him and Gert were happy and they were all a family. 

She knew she should stop herself from crying, because Chase wouldn’t have wanted her to, but she couldn’t. Tears began running down her face, and Nico and Karolina rushed to her side, both hugging her as she broke down into sobs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time:
> 
> The others were already there along with a half dozen nurses and doctors. Chase was in the middle of it all, hooked up to even more monitors than he had been in the hospital. Hunter paced back and forth, checking his phone every minute or two, until he finally got a call and closed his eyes as he listened. A few seconds later he hung up the phone and swore softly. He looked back at the group, shoved the phone into his pocket, and explained, “They’ve isolated something in his blood, but they’re not sure what it is or how to counteract it.”
> 
> “So, they don’t know what bit him?” Karolina asked.
> 
> Hunter shook his head, “It doesn’t look like it was a bite – it looks like it’s synthetic.”
> 
> Nico straightened up, “Are you saying someone did this to him?”
> 
> “Yes,” Hunter confirmed. “Have any ideas who might want to hurt him?”
> 
> Nico huffed out a humorless laugh, “There are some truly weird-ass Murderworld groupies out there, but they haven’t got the tech for something like this. Worst they’ve ever done is dox us.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Doombot paused and turned to look at Victor, “And why have you all moved here? Given Stein’s illogical dislike for his uncle, it is doubtful he consented to having his lab relocated.” Doombot picked up a servo connected to a controller and examined it.
> 
> “Chase isn’t consenting to much of anything these days. Someone attacked him and he’s in a coma.”
> 
> Doombot put the equipment he was holding back on the bench and walked over to examine the almost-finished cyborg body, “While Stein can be bothersome at times, I did not think he had enemies of that nature. Except you, of course.”

Sarah stashed her suitcase in the closet of the room Hunter had given to her. She hadn’t expected the offer, but he’d given all the others rooms as well, and she really didn’t want to go back to her apartment and take the risk of running into Barrett again. Plus, while dinosaurs weren’t mentioned in her lease, she was pretty sure that if dogs weren’t allowed, dinosaurs wouldn’t be either. She did a quick survey of her room to make sure she knew where she’d unpacked everything – a lesson she’d learned from the second boarding school she’d been kicked out of – and then headed toward the first floor of the east wing, where Hunter had set up the hospital equipment for Chase.

The others were already there along with a half dozen nurses and doctors. Chase was in the middle of it all, hooked up to even more monitors than he had been in the hospital. Hunter paced back and forth, checking his phone every minute or two, until he finally got a call and closed his eyes as he listened. A few seconds later he hung up the phone and swore softly. He looked back at the group, shoved the phone into his pocket, and explained, “They’ve isolated something in his blood, but they’re not sure what it is or how to counteract it.”

“So, they don’t know what bit him?” Karolina asked.

Hunter shook his head, “It doesn’t look like it was a bite – it looks like it’s synthetic.”

Nico straightened up, “Are you saying someone did this to him?”

“Yes,” Hunter confirmed. “Have any ideas who might want to hurt him?”

Nico huffed out a humorless laugh, “There are some truly weird-ass Murderworld groupies out there, but they haven’t got the tech for something like this. Worst they’ve ever done is dox us.”

“Murderworld?” Sarah asked.

Nico grimaced, “Chase and I got kidnapped by this homicidal nutcase named Arcade, spent a month trying not to die, and then the whole thing was uploaded to YouTube.”

Hunter leaned against the end of the bed, “It’s not Arcade. He’s in prison in Russia – and if he ever makes it out of there, he’s got at least a dozen contracts out on him. Some of the kids he killed had some very rich – and powerful – friends.”

Nico wrapped her arms around herself and nodded, “Good.”

“Have you tried asking the Avengers for help?” Karolina asked.

Hunter nodded, “Yes – I put out calls for help to every contact I have, and called in favors, and haven’t found anything that can counteract whatever it is he was hit with.”

“What is it doing to him?” Molly asked, looking like she was on the verge of tears again.

Hunter frowned and crossed his arms, “Slowing down his metabolic rate. Probably compromising his immune system. All we really know is they symptoms we can observe – he’s in a coma and his heart rate, breathing and blood pressure are just this side of dangerously low.”

Sarah backed away a few steps, feeling like she was intruding on a family. Molly saw her move and walked over to her, throwing her arms around her. Sarah hesitated for a moment, but then hugged Molly back. She might not be their friend, but she was what Molly needed right now, and she couldn’t walk away from that. 

The door to the room opened, and Alex slipped in, unnoticed for a moment until Nico spat out, “What the fuck are you doing here?”

Hunter stepped over to Alex, “I asked him to look through the security tapes. I know you don’t trust him, but you know even better than me how good he is at solving problems, and that’s what we need right now.”

“Did you find anything?” Victor asked from where he was perched on the top of one of Chase’s monitors.

Alex nodded, “Yeah,” and pulled a remote control from his pocket, aiming at a monitor in the corner of the room. The tape showed footage of a dimly lit alley with Chase’s van off to one side. After a few seconds Chase stepped into view carrying a bag in his arms. “What’s he carrying?” Victor asked.

“He said he got tacos for everyone,” Sarah answered.

They watched as he shifted the bag to his other arm so he could get his keys, and then pause and look around as if he had heard something. Chase then shook his head, started to open the van, but then stopped and slapped the back of his neck where they’d found the wound. Whatever it was acted quickly and he collapsed on the ground in seconds.

“I took a forensics team to the alley, but we didn’t find anything,” Alex said as he turned off the monitor.

“So we’re back to square one?” Karolina asked glumly.

Alex shook his head and cracked a smile, “Not necessarily. We have a time and a place. And access to a time machine.”

Hunter nodded in agreement, “Send a team to Chase’s lab – bring everything back here,” he ordered, “I want to have that machine ready to go before the end of the day.”

 

 

Victor looked through the room where they’d started to set up Chase’s equipment. His lab back at the hostel may have looked like a mess, but Chase knew exactly where everything was in there, and he was going to be seriously pissed off when he woke up. But, as this was the only thing they could think of that might give them an idea of how to wake Chase up, it would be worth hearing any complaints his friend had.

Well, former friend at this point he guessed. Yet another thing he’d screwed up in his life, and he couldn’t blame this on the vibranium.

He stopped at a corner of the lab and stared at Chase’s latest version of his body. It was pretty much complete, but after everything that had happened with Gert they’d kind of let it slide. He saw a second body next to it, covered in a sheet – only this one appeared to have a head. He extended the claws that Chase had added to his platform a couple of weeks before, pulled the sheet off, and blinked in surprise. “Doombot?”

Victor felt the electromagnetic surge as Doombot powered himself on. “It seemed the least damaging way in,” he explained.

Victor chuckled, “Yeah, it probably was. But why did you want in?”

“All of you disappeared and I was curious.”

“Or maybe concerned?”

Doombot started to examine the lab, “You are Doombot’s only friend, Victor Mancha. Doombot does not concern himself with petty humans.” 

“Of course not,” Victor agreed.

Doombot paused and turned to look at Victor, “And why have you all moved here? Given Stein’s illogical dislike for his uncle, it is doubtful he consented to having his lab relocated.” Doombot picked up a servo connected to a controller and examined it.

“Chase isn’t consenting to much of anything these days. Someone attacked him and he’s in a coma.”

Doombot put the equipment he was holding back on the bench and walked over to examine the almost-finished cyborg body, “While Stein can be bothersome at times, I did not think he had enemies of that nature. Except you, of course.”

Victor maneuvered himself so that he was eye-level with Doombot, “I didn’t attack him!”

“Of course not,” Doombot agreed. “As you are now, you could not.”

Victor stared at Doombot, “As I am now?”

Doombot did what was a pretty good approximation of raising an eyebrow, “There is a time machine involved. That can make reality more fluid.”

“It doesn’t matter – I wouldn’t ever hurt him. He’s my friend.”

Doombot shrugged, “As you wish.”

Victor closed his eyes and sighed. Doombot could be a passive/aggressive little shit sometimes. Trying to argue with him would only drag him in deeper, and he was just stirring shit up anyway. There was no way he’d ever hurt Chase. At least, not more than he already had. 

He looked over at the cyborg body. He’d been putting off having himself attached to it for weeks, asking for alterations and tweaks, but now he needed to bite the bullet and get it done. He could only accomplish so much in his current state. “Doombot?”

“Yes, Victor Mancha?”

“Hook me up. I need to be able to help save him.”

“Are you sure? It is doubtful that Stein had enough time to remove all the vibranium in the components as you requested.”

Victor stared the the body. He had no idea how much vibranium was there, or how long it would take to remove it. But, he needed to try to make things up to Chase, and if they waited too long he might never get that chance.

He could do this. He had to do this. “It’ll be fine. Hook me up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time:
> 
> Alex raised an eyebrow and turned in his seat to look at Sarah. She stared back at him, with her own eyebrow raised. He couldn’t be serious. “It won’t work for me, and I have zero desire to time travel.”
> 
> “If it won’t work for you, then you’ve got nothing to lose by trying,” Alex argued. “And, even if the machine does think you’re Gert like the other machines do - “ there was a muted, “hey!” from Victor – “we’re only going back like a day, right?”
> 
> Sarah closed her eyes and shook her head. She really...really...did not want to do this. Time travel just sounded scary. OK, there was the whole Dr. Who, running around saving the universe crap she’d mainlined at school. But real world? She’d end up as a slave in ancient Rome or stuck inside Troy when the Greeks were sacking it, or in some other horrible dark corner of history. So – no. She liked her nice safe boring life, and she really did want to help these guys – her heart went out to them – but there was only so far she could go to do it.
> 
> She opened her eyes, ready to tell them that she was going to get her stuff and go, but the first thing she saw was Molly. With eyes pleading with her to do this for Chase. Because kids could be fucking manipulative like that. She frowned and felt her heart speed up as she announced, almost against her will, “OK – I’ll do it.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sarah stared straight ahead at the beach. There were several things that occurred to her immediately. The first was that it had worked, which was yet more evidence to throw on the “Gee, maybe I really am Gert” pile. The second was that the coordinates were wrong at least in time, because that kind of looked like a hadrosaur – which meant late Cretaceous. The third was that she now needed to add in a whole new set of this-is-how-you-could-die scenarios to her time travel list because that sort of looked like a Tyrannosaurus heading down the beach toward them.

Sarah did her best to stay out of the way, but Hunter had techs that were racing around the room trying to meet the deadline of getting the time machine up by the “end of the day”, and everyplace she stood seemed to be in the way. Eventually she ended up huddled in a corner by the window with Molly, Nico and Karolina. They’d decided to leave Lace with Chase, partly because she would have been in the way here, but mostly because they were worried that whoever had it in for Chase might try again.

The activity eventually died down, and Hunter and Alex entered the room. Hunter announced, “OK – they say that it’s good to go. The question is – does anyone know how to fly this thing?”

Nico smirked, “Chase figured it out just by looking at it. You saying that’s not a Stein family thing?”

Hunter shook his head, “Stein no – Chase takes after his mom’s side of the family. She was always the brains in that house.”

“I know how to fly it,” Victor called out, stepping into the room from the doorway. Sarah blinked – she was so used to seeing him as just a disembodied head that it seemed weird to see him walking around.

“So – I guess the body was finished?” Karolina asked.

A tall, well dressed figure with a cape stepped into the room next to Victor, “It required some….adjustments.”

“Doombot!” Molly exclaimed.

“Miss Hayes,” Doombot greeted her. He looked through the room and stopped at Sarah.

She guessed he was scanning her and objected, “You wanna ask before you scan me?”

Doombot tilted his head, “Would you ask before glancing at someone, Miss Yorkes? The principle is the same.”

“I’m not Gert.”

Doombot paused for a second before acquiescing, “As you wish.”

Sarah rolled her eyes and shook her head, which had absolutely no effect on Doombot.

Victor stepped into the machine, sitting next to Alex who had adjusted the time and location settings for their target. When Alex nodded that he was ready, Victor threw the power switch – and nothing happened. He reset the switch and tried again, but still no result.

Alex stared at the controls for a moment and asked, “When you’ve been in the machine before – were you alone?”

Victor shook his head, “No – I was with Chase. But, I’m sure I’m using the same controls he used.”

“I don’t think that’s the problem,” Alex muttered. He turned around to look at the others, “This was Gert’s parents’ machine, right?” Nico nodded, and Alex continued, “Who else has used it before?”

“Both Chase and Gert,” Karolina answered.

Alex nodded slowly, “Chase had a psychic connection to Gert through Old Lace, right? Maybe the machine needs a psychic imprint from a member of the Yorkes family, and Chase’s connection to Gert through Lace was enough to give him a pass.”

“Well, then we’re up shit creek, because neither of them are available.” Nico said glumly.

Alex raised an eyebrow and turned in his seat to look at Sarah. She stared back at him, with her own eyebrow raised. He couldn’t be serious. “It won’t work for me, and I have zero desire to time travel.”

“If it won’t work for you, then you’ve got nothing to lose by trying,” Alex argued. “And, even if the machine does think you’re Gert like the other machines do - “ there was a muted, “hey!” from Victor – “we’re only going back like a day, right?”

Sarah closed her eyes and shook her head. She really...really...did not want to do this. Time travel just sounded scary. OK, there was the whole Dr. Who, running around saving the universe crap she’d mainlined at school. But real world? She’d end up as a slave in ancient Rome or stuck inside Troy when the Greeks were sacking it, or in some other horrible dark corner of history. So – no. She liked her nice safe boring life, and she really did want to help these guys – her heart went out to them – but there was only so far she could go to do it.

She opened her eyes, ready to tell them that she was going to get her stuff and go, but the first thing she saw was Molly. With eyes pleading with her to do this for Chase. Because kids could be fucking manipulative like that. She frowned and felt her heart speed up as she announced, almost against her will, “OK – I’ll do it.”

Molly cheered, and Sarah slowly walked over to the machine. Victor stood up, moving to stand between the two seats, and Sarah saw her hand trembling as she moved it to the switch Victor indicated. “What do I do?” she asked.

“Just press that button and pull back on the lever.”

She took a deep breath, wrapped her hand around the lever and pushed the button he’d indicated. It was surprisingly warm and more of an effort to pull than she thought it would be. When the lever was pulled completely back, she smiled. Nothing had happened. Definitive proof she wasn’t Gert!

A split second later, the air imploded around them and they disappeared.

 

 

Sarah stared straight ahead at the beach. There were several things that occurred to her immediately. The first was that it had worked, which was yet more evidence to throw on the “Gee, maybe I really am Gert” pile. The second was that the coordinates were wrong at least in time, because that kind of looked like a hadrosaur – which meant late Cretaceous. The third was that she now needed to add in a whole new set of this-is-how-you-could-die scenarios to her time travel list because that sort of looked like a Tyrannosaurus heading down the beach toward them.

“What the hell, Alex!” Victor cursed, floating a few feet above them while he pulled together an electric charge and estimated the distance to the Tyrannosaurus.

Alex frantically readjusted the settings, glancing back and forth between the dials and the notebooks that Chase had used. After a second he muttered, “the fuck...” as he found the problem, finished with the settings, and called to Victor, “We’re good – get back in here!”

Victor floated down, his hands still surrounded by the electric charge he’d gathered and still facing toward the Tyrannosaurus. Sarah felt the ground reverberating beneath them from the quickly approaching dinosaur, and when Alex shouted, “Punch it, Gert!” she barely even noticed that he’d used the wrong name.

 

Sarah’s pulse slowed down as she recognized civilization around her. Or, at least as civilized as the back alleys of LA got. She stood up and took a shaky step outside the time machine while Victor and Alex argued behind her. 

“I thought you said you fucking knew how to set the dials on that thing!” Victor cursed.

“I do know how to set them – but someone put in a random override setting that changed it to 68 million years ago!”

Sarah closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. OK, something fucked up – stow it and move on. She turned on them, reached out, and covered both of their mouths with her hands. “We are here for a reason!” she whispered harshly, nodding her head toward the end of the alley where the front of Chase’s van was visible. Alex and Victor looked at her in surprise, and then looked down in embarrassment. They followed Sarah as she quietly moved to the end of the alley, hiding behind an shipping pallet that someone had set up on its end to provide some privacy.

They all tensed as they saw Chase walking toward the van, and Alex grabbed Victor’s arm to prevent him from intervening and saving Chase before he was attacked. “We can’t create a paradox,” Alex explained quietly. “You save him, there’s no reason for us to be here, and we’re in a different timeline and can’t get back to save him in our timeline.”

Victor grimaced and looked unconvinced, but stayed where he was. They heard the footsteps, and saw Chase looking around to find where they were coming from, but they couldn’t see the source either. Victor scanned the area and detected an electromagnetic source approaching Chase – and it wasn’t visible. Sarah saw him staring at an empty space behind Chase and whispered, “What’s there?”

Victor shook his head, “I’m not sure – it’s something but its signature is jumbled – like it’s trying to cloak itself.” They heard a thud and saw Chase hit the side of the van and slide to the ground. Victor flew from the alley, and grabbed the shape, wrestling with it for a second before it blinked out of existence. 

“Fuck,” Alex swore, pulling out his phone and dialing 911 to anonymously report someone unconscious in the alley.

Victor examined a piece of cloth in his hand, and experimentally sent a small charge through it. It disappeared from view, becoming visible again when he removed the current. “Who has this kind of tech?” he wondered.

“The same person who has whatever drug Chase was given,” Sarah muttered. Sarah crouched down, moving Chase to a more comfortable position and brushing away the hair that had fallen in his face. “We’re going to figure this out,” she promised him.

They all turned as they heard the sirens approaching. “We gotta go,” Alex muttered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time:
> 
> She looked around the lab in confusion – the lab was different than the one they’d left from, and it was deserted and dark. She stepped out of the machine and the motion sensors snapped the lights on, followed an instant later by a red light on the wall beginning to flash and an alarm sounding. She looked back at Victor and Alex who both shrugged, just as confused as she was.
> 
> The door into the room was thrown open, and Molly stood there, whispering, “You’re here?” 
> 
> Sarah stared at the woman – it had to be Molly, but she was different. An adult now, she had to be close to seven feet tall, and was easily 300 pounds of pure muscle. Maybe part of being a mutant? “We saw the attack,” Sarah told her.
> 
> Alex got out of the machine, “How long have we been gone?”
> 
> A voice answered from the corner of the room, “Eighteen years,” as Nico walked through a shadowy portal that had materialized from nowhere.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As they watched the static began to clear, and then after a few more iterations, the image began to sharpen. When the face became visible, Nico shook her head and asked, “Who the fuck is that?”
> 
> Sarah’s eyes widened in recognition, and she whispered, “Barrett?” 
> 
> Molly nodded, “Yes! That butt-face loser from the museum!” she remembered. They all turned to her and she shrugged, “C’mon, I was thirteen.”
> 
> “What’s his full name?” Hunter asked.
> 
> “Barrett Jennings – he moved here the same time I did,” Sarah replied.
> 
> Alex raised an eyebrow, “Kind of stalkery.”
> 
> “You have no idea,” Sarah groaned.

Sarah was getting used to the transition when the time machine moved them to a new location – the walls of the alley faded to a dull, amorphous grey, and then their destination solidified around them – the darker hues slowly brightening until it all came into focus. It was almost like what the world looked like without her glasses before she’d had the laser surgery to correct her vision.

She looked around the lab in confusion – the lab was different than the one they’d left from, and it was deserted and dark. She stepped out of the machine and the motion sensors snapped the lights on, followed an instant later by a red light on the wall beginning to flash and an alarm sounding. She looked back at Victor and Alex who both shrugged, just as confused as she was.

The door into the room was thrown open, and Molly stood there, whispering, “You’re here?” 

Sarah stared at the woman – it had to be Molly, but she was different. An adult now, she had to be close to seven feet tall, and was easily 300 pounds of pure muscle. Maybe part of being a mutant? “We saw the attack,” Sarah told her.

Alex got out of the machine, “How long have we been gone?”

A voice answered from the corner of the room, “Eighteen years,” as Nico walked through a shadowy portal that had materialized from nowhere.

“Chase?” Victor asked.

Molly had her arms crossed and a sullen expression on her face, “Hunter put him in a cryogenic pod when you guys didn’t come back with a cure.”

“We’ve only been gone ten minutes!” Sarah defended, even though she knew that really didn’t mean much with a time machine.

Nico stepped further into the room and Sarah got a better look at her. While she had been goth before, she was nearly vampiric now, and looked like she hadn’t aged a day. Sarah inadvertently took a step back from her - Nico noticed and a sneering smile crossed her face at Sarah’s reaction. “You fucked up, but he’s not dead yet. Do you have anything we can use?”

Victor stepped toward Nico and held out the piece of cloth he’d taken from the attacker. “This – and I recorded the attacker – we can analyze that.”

Nico narrowed her eyes, pausing for a moment to glare at Victor. She grabbed the cloth from him and turned away spitting out, “Well, that’s underwhelming after two decades.” She nearly glided over to a bank of equipment across the room, “Let’s hook you up, Pinnochio.”

Victor turned to look at Alex and Gert, who were as confused as he was. “So – what did we miss?”

Nico glanced at the other two time travelers as well, but her face was expressionless as she answered, “Hopefully nothing that can’t be undone.”

Gert heard a whirring sound by the doorway and turned to see Hunter, in a wheelchair and looking far older than could be accounted for by nearly two decades. “You’re here!” he muttered, a hopeful smile growing on his face.

Alex looked around, trying to decide if the differences were due to so much time having passed, or if they’d somehow skipped to an alternate timeline. There was one piece missing, so he asked, “Where’s Karolina?”

Nico shoved a wiring harness at Victor, “Not here. Let’s see what toaster-boy picked up.”

Victor narrowed his eyes in concern at Nico’s hostility toward him. When she caught him looking at her, he forced himself to look away and finished hooking up the wires to an IO port in his arm. He fed the footage through it and his scans of the alley flickered onto the lab’s monitors. The image was that same static filled blob that he’d seen before.

Hunter rolled up to a workstation, pulled over a keyboard and began typing. As they watched the static began to clear, and then after a few more iterations, the image began to sharpen. When the face became visible, Nico shook her head and asked, “Who the fuck is that?”

Sarah’s eyes widened in recognition, and she whispered, “Barrett?” 

Molly nodded, “Yes! That butt-face loser from the museum!” she remembered. They all turned to her and she shrugged, “C’mon, I was thirteen.”

“What’s his full name?” Hunter asked.

“Barrett Jennings – he moved here the same time I did,” Sarah replied.

Alex raised an eyebrow, “Kind of stalkery.”

“You have no idea,” Sarah groaned.

Hunter’s hands flew across the keyboard as he pulled up information on Barrett, and then he suddenly swore under his breath, wheeled away from the keyboard and sped out of the room. They all followed him into a room two doors down the hall, and Sarah froze as she entered. It was the cryolab, and in its center was one pod, with Chase’s face barely visible through the frost. Hunter pulled up another keyboard and started running diagnostics, growing paler as the results came in. Finally he slumped back in his chair, defeated.

“What?” Nico demanded.

Hunter brought a hand up to cover his face, “Barrett began working here two years ago. He’s been adjusting the settings for the cryopod.” He paused, taking a second to compose himself. “Chase is gone,” he ground out in a hoarse voice, “Even if we had the cure for the neurotoxin he was given, there’s no way we could revive him now.”

Sarah covered her mouth with her hands, and stared at the cryopod. Barrett? Why would he attack Chase? And then wait years to finish him off? Had he done this because of her? She looked at the others – Alex was staring into space as he tried to put the pieces together, Hunter was grief stricken, Nico’s face was a stoic mask, Molly was pissed off, and Victor stood in front of the cryopod, looking at Chase with tears in his eyes.

Molly stumbled back against a workbench and gripped it, crushing the metal beneath her hands. They had spent years waiting – hoping that they’d get Chase back. And now it was over. He was gone. She narrowed her eyes and turned to Nico. “Where is he? Where is that motherfucking butt-face asshole loser?” she demanded.

Nico raised an eyebrow and nodded in agreement. Yes – revenge was definitely in order. Chase had been a brother to her, and she would not let his murderer escape. Her eyes went dark, and she wordlessly tapped her staff on the ground. A cold black fog enveloped the room, and when it dissipated they were in an apartment, surrounding a bed where Barrett was sleeping. 

Molly stalked forward, grabbed Barrett by the neck with one hand and slammed him against the wall next to his bed. She drew her other hand back, forming a fist as she was about to finish him off. Barrett’s eyes grew wide and he flailed helplessly against her.

“Not yet,” Nico ordered quietly. She heard Molly growl at the order, but the girl lowered her fist. He would be punished, that was a given, but they had time travelers, and it might be possible to salvage something from this. Nico’s eyes bored into Barrett, “You have no friends here. We know about Chase, and you will not escape payment for that debt. However, you can save yourself some suffering if you tell us exactly what you gave him.”

Barrett’s panicked eyes searched the room, stopping at Sarah. He wordlessly pleaded with her, but she only frowned in response and shook her head. He then noticed Victor standing next to Sarah and he stopped struggling, his panic subsiding. His eyes glowed for a split second, and then his body collapsed as if it were a ragdoll. Molly’s mouth dropped open, “I didn’t do that,” she said defensively. She removed her hand and he fell to the floor.

Victor stared at Barrett. The flash had been a burst transmission – he was still unpacking it, but what he got so far looked like a mission report. He felt an electromagnetic charge starting to build around Barrett as he finished decrypting the mission parameters – self destruct in the event of discovery…

He raced to pull electricity from the surrounding power grid so quickly he shorted out the local transformer and then fashioned that energy and anything he could draw from within himself into a shield surrounding Barrett’s body. He had just barely had enough time to pull the memory module from the other cyborg’s head before the power core in its chest exploded.

Victor dropped to his knees, gritting his teeth at the blinding headache he got from manipulating too much energy too quickly and depleting his stores. Any damage he’d caused himself would self-repair in a few hours, and he knew the pain was an artifact from his organic components. It was part of his programming that had been designed to make him believe he was human. It was also the part of him that had become addicted to vibranium to try to make the pain go away. He had hoped Chase had finished removing the vibranium in his new body, but now he knew for sure that it was there. He could feel the vibranium soothing the pain and, god, all he wanted right now was to wrap himself up in it, and why the fuck had he let himself be turned back on in the first place? Why had the Avengers given him back to Chase? They should have just thrown him into the same scrapyard where his mom had found Ultron... 

Alex and Sarah glanced at each other worriedly, and then knelt down next to him, with Alex asking, “You ok?” Victor had his eyes closed tightly, but nodded at them after a few seconds, and then leaned on Alex as he stood up.

Hunter moved his wheelchair closer to the what was left of Barret’s body, “That flash – a data transmission?”

Victor nodded, “Yeah. I’m still decoding it. Got his memory module before he self-destructed too.”

“Why the fuck does it matter?” Molly spat out, punching through the wall and opening a hole to the outside. “Chase is dead – it doesn’t matter what we find now.”

Nico faded out of view and materialized next to Molly in a cloud of black smoke, placing a comforting hand on the younger woman’s arm, “They still have the time machine, Molls. If we find the cure, they go back with it. We get Chase back, and none of this ever happened.”

Molly sniffled, “No more Victorious?”

Nico smirked, “Never was a Victorious,” she assured her. 

Victor felt as if time had stopped. He replayed what he’d just heard in his head to make sure it wasn’t a vibranium induced hallucination. When it came back just as clear, he tried to keep his voice steady as he asked, “Victorious is here?”

Nico continued to focus on Molly as she answered him, “Yes. Victorious is here. We were warned about you, but we were foolish enough to believe in you. We were trusting idiots who thought that friendship had overridden your core programming.” She turned toward him, “You killed Karolina and crippled Hunter. We have no idea what you did to Alex, but the Gert you brought with you the first time you came back was unflinchingly loyal to you. And, Chase? You had him killed without our even knowing about it, when there was no reason to think he was a danger to you. Which leads to the question – what did you see in your travels through time that led you to think he was a danger? ” 

She hit the floor with her staff again, and when the smoke cleared they were back in the lab, but this time Victor was pinned inside a metal frame floating a few feet off the floor with a current pulsing around it. “Given that your child felt the need to self-destruct at the sight of you, I’m sure you’ll excuse me if I’m less than trusting.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time:
> 
> Victor tried to move, but recoiled as an icy shock singed his arm. “I haven’t done any of those things!” he protested.
> 
> Nico stood over him, looking down at him with hatred, “No. But you will. And you’ve got time travel, so you already have.”
> 
> Sarah stepped forward, “But we’ve been with him, and really he hasn’t done anything. He’s not this “Victorious” guy!”
> 
> “And, who the hell is Victorious anyway?” Alex demanded.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunter tells Sarah, Victor and Alex about Victorious, leading both Sarah and Victor to question their memory of the past.

Victor tried to move, but recoiled as an icy shock singed his arm. “I haven’t done any of those things!” he protested.

Nico stood over him, looking down at him with hatred, “No. But you will. And you’ve got time travel, so you already have.”

Sarah stepped forward, “But we’ve been with him, and he hasn’t done anything. He’s not this “Victorious” guy!”

“And, who the hell is Victorious anyway?” Alex demanded.

Nico spun around to face Alex, but Hunter put a hand on her arm and shook his head. He couldn’t let her relive losing Karolina, but Alex and Sarah did deserve to get all the facts. “I’ll tell them,” he volunteered. Nico hesitated, knowing he miight be more distressed than she would have been, but, after seeing the determined look in his eyes she nodded, squeezing Hunter’s hand in gratitude. She glared at Victor one last time, and then stalked toward the door, a black cloud enveloping her as she left.

Molly looked at Hunter, and shook her head, whispering apologetically, “I’m sorry – I can’t...” Hunter nodded to her that it was ok for her to leave as well, and she bent down, kissing him on the cheek on her way out.

Hunter let out his breath slowly, folding his hands in his lap, and forcing himself to be calm. Being hunted by Victorious the last few years, and watching almost everyone he cared about die had been horrific. He could handle being captured by Victorious – it was an occupational hazard that he sort of expected would happen sooner or later. He could even handle having his back shattered. But, having to sit there helplessly while he watched others suffer? That was what nearly broke him. 

Especially after Karolina had been captured while trying to rescue him. The memories of what she went through were enough to send him into the deepest hole he could find curled up around of bottle of anything that would kill the pain. But she’d been braver than anyone, even to the end. He’d promised her that he’d take care of Nico and Molly for her, and nothing would make him break that promise. So, he would tell this story, because hell would freeze over before he made Nico or Molly remember what it was like when they found what was left of Karolina.

He wiped away a tear and began, focusing on Sarah because they were going to need her the most, “Victor and Sarah returned to us 37 days after they left. They said there were problems with the time machine, and that Alex had been killed by a dinosaur when they’d been stuck in the Cretaceous. At the time, we didn’t have any reason to disbelieve them about that, or about their not being able to find a cure for Chase.”

He closed his eyes and tilted his head down as he remembered, “Sarah joined the Avengers about ten years later, and when she became team leader, she invited Victor to join the team. Soon after, the Avengers started dying off, and then other heroes did, until eventually there were only a few dozen left in the world. Victor said he knew what had happened, and that the killer was attacking through computer networks. He used that as an excuse to take control of every computer on the planet – so he could secure them and protect us all, he said. Many of us saw him for what he was, and fought against him. And many of us were killed. We hid from him, but he found almost all of us. It was like he knew exactly where we were going to be even before we did.”

Hunter cleared his throat again before continuing. “There was a mutant – he called himself Chronos.” He paused, remembering the kid – not too tall, kind of skinny, dark skin, the slightest hint of a Haitian accent, and a smile that would light up the room. Losing him had been about as hard as losing Chase. “Good kid, about 14. He never told us his real name because he wanted to try to protect his family. He could sense timelines, and see where they were changed, or out of sequence, or ripped apart because they’d been manipulated too much. He was the one who’d figured it all out. You see, we knew Victorious had the time machine, but we didn’t think that Sarah would let him misuse it. And that was exactly what he did. He ripped the timeline into shreds by going back and changing anything that would have defeated him.”

Sarah’s eyes widened, and she glanced at Alex, silently asking if he believed what Hunter was saying. He frowned and shook his head, just as unsure as she was. “I wouldn’t have let him,” she defended herself.

Hunter reached out and took her hands, looking her in the eyes, “The you that came back to us eighteen years ago didn’t have a choice - Victorious was controlling her through an electronic implant – when he activated it, she would do whatever he wanted, and wouldn’t remember any of it. But, once Chronos told us about it, Karolina was able to burn the implant out – she’d gotten really good at channeling light into pinpoint lasers,” he paused and smiled fondly, “Called it her laser surgery special.”

“When you were free, you did everything you could to stop him. You became our mole, at least until Victorious found that the implant wasn’t working any more. The last thing you did was take the time machine out of his hands and go back to warn your younger self and the others.” 

Sarah’s mouth dropped open, and she started shaking her head, but Hunter gripped her hands more tightly to focus her on him and he continued, “You have the implant now, but he hasn’t activated it yet. You got it about 6 years ago, when Victorious took control of Victor and Victor kidnapped Gert Yorkes. He implanted a device into your brain, and left one of his cyborg children to monitor you. Our Sarah never knew she was Gert until Karolina removed the implant.”

Sarah’s eyes widened, with tears forming as all the pieces began to slide into place for her. She didn’t want to believe it – but all the facts were fitting together too well to deny it. She still had doubts because Gert’s memories weren’t there, but – if they’d been erased? All she’d ever had was Barrett’s word for what had happened before in her life, and that was obviously worth less than nothing now. 

She felt them watching her and waiting for her response to all this, and she closed her eyes for a moment to try to calm down, not even realizing she was crying until she felt the tears on her cheek. She wiped the tears away, and looked back at a concerned Hunter and a confused Alex. She began to explain, “Barrett...he told me there was an accident. Said my parents had been killed.” She ran a finger over the scar just behind her hairline, “He said there was some metal that the doctor’s hadn’t been able to remove, and that was why I had so many memories missing.” 

She turned to stare at Victor. When she’d first met him – or at least the first time she met him as Sarah – she thought she’d been weirded out because he didn’t have a body yet. But, what if something left of Gert in her was remembering what he’d done to her? She was second guessing her reaction that morning – her flight reflex had definitely kicked in, but maybe it was some remnant of Gert reacting to Victor? And her reaction to Chase? She’d been attracted to guys who looked like him for as long as she could remember – was that from Gert as well? 

Victor watched Sarah, and shook his head, not believing any of it. He would have remembered, and he wouldn’t have done it...not to Gert or Chase. They were his closest friends. He stammered out, “I didn’t….I could never….”

“You did,” Hunter cut him off harshly. “Chronos said the Victorious protocols kicked in later than they should have because they were corrupted by vibranium poisoning, but they eventually repaired themselves. He said that you would come back to us again, from a time before Victorious took control completely and before he had activated Sarah’s implant. He said that you would have holes in your memories whenever Victorious was in control.” Hunter looked away, his voice choking with emotion, “That was the last thing Chronos told us before Victorious killed him.”

Alex walked over to Victor’s cage, glanced at him, and then looked away. “Did Chronos ever tell you how badly the timeline would be damaged if we killed Victor now, before he becomes Victorious?”

Sarah blinked in surprise, “What are you saying?”

“He has a fucking split personality, and he’s going to kill me. How is killing him first not a good idea?” Alex demanded, “I even think Nico would back me up on this.”

Victor stared at Alex. He didn’t know him as well as the others, but that was probably for the best. Alex could see things more rationally. And, rationally? Rationally he knew the programming was still there and even if Hunter was lying, there was still the chance that Victorious would take him over. He couldn’t allow that. When he’d been killed before his last thought had been that Victorious was gone. If his being alive meant that someday he would become Victorious, then there was no way he should be alive. “He’s right.” Victor agreed, keeping his voice calm and steady. “You have to get rid of me now before I hurt anyone.”

“Before you hurt anyone more, you mean,” Sarah spat out, her anger growing as her doubts about who she was diminished. 

Victor opened his mouth, but couldn’t find any words. What could he say if he had hurt her? If he had violated Gert’s trust like that and it was his fault that Gert disappeared and came back as Sarah? But she deserved an answer, so he swallowed and started, “Sarah – I’m -” 

“Who am I, Victor?” Sarah interrupted, uninterested in any excuses or apologies he might have. “I guess I used to be Gert, but I can’t remember a fucking thing about that life! All I know is the lie that you had a robot feed me for 6 years.” She stalked away from them, heading for the door. She reached for the handle, but stopped and leaned her head against the door. She punched the wall in frustration and muttered, “Everything in my life is a lie.”

She felt her head starting to throb and knew a migraine was about to start. She reached into her pocket for her pills, but stopped herself as she was about to swallow one. Barrett had given her these pills. Barrett had been taking care of her meds ever since he oh-so-selflessly nursed her back to health after her accident. She threw the bottle across the room in disgust and pulled the door open, stumbling into the hall. She needed to get away for a minute – just to catch her breath. 

Halfway down the hall she fell to her knees as the pain became blinding, and a moment later she fell to the floor as she passed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time:
> 
> An hour ago she had been Sarah and Chase had just been a cute, kind of complicated guy with some potential. Now she was Gert again, and Chase had been so much more to her, and god, she missed him.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sarah remembers her past.

_  
She was forced to hang out with the kids of her parent’s friends, when there was so much else she could be doing….and they were bored, so they followed Alex….they had no idea what their parents were doing until Alex’s father stabbed the girl…._

_Her heart was pounding as they pretended to be playing Twister...pasting on a stupid smile and praying that Alex’s mom didn’t realize they knew what the Pride had been doing._

_Her Dad carrying out a body sized box...she knew her parents were evil...she’d always known….ever since they’d gotten rid of Orwell….but still she had hoped she was wrong..._

_That idiot Chase was going to get himself killed, and maybe take some of them with him….you don’t just attack a dinosaur! She yelled without even thinking, and the dinosaur just looked at her...and it clicked. She could feel the dinosaur in the back of her head, almost like it was an extension of herself...and then hearing her parent’s recorded explanation….any last shred of hope she had of believing in them died right there…._

_All of them freaking out when their parents framed them for murder...except Chase, who was in his element….she was grudgingly impressed by his urban survival skills...she’d never tell him that, but she did wonder how someone who’d been as sheltered as the rest of them knew how to evade the police so well…_

_The first time Chase showed them the hostel….wondering again why he knew about this place….what kind of life had he been leading?_

_….deciding she didn’t want to be Gert any more….she wanted a name that felt like the poison she could feel running through her veins…_

_the tension of living with kids she didn’t really like all that much...except for Molly...everybody loved Molly_

_Gradually getting to know the others…their strengths and weaknesses….she would’ve written Chase off as a stereotypical case of sexist white male privilege except that she saw him sneaking part of his food onto Molly’s plate when they were running short, and he denied doing it when she asked….he was still an idiot who was going to get them killed though..._

_Then, the demon guard, with only Lace between her and it….Chase distracted it….he drowned because he helped her….she pulled him out of the water, not finding a pulse…her heart was pounding as she hoped she remembered CPR right, but he wasn’t moving….until, suddenly he was coughing and sputtering, and being an insulting fucking idiot...and he kissed her….and she kissed him back…._

_Running away as the underwater base was destroyed...still not quite believing that Alex had betrayed them, and then falling into the Avengers hands and getting split up. Her heart aching when Chase never responded to her emails – until he was suddenly there and leading her back to Lace…._

_Wandering around for months from one miserable dilapidated shack to another...but she and Chase always ended up curled up around each other wherever they crashed for the night….finally Chase found their new base under the tar pits...settling in to a routine that almost seemed normal_

_And Chase…he was still an idiot, but an idiot she loved and she couldn’t imagine wanting to change him…couldn’t imagine not waking up next to him every morning….until she died in his arms….._

_And, waking up in his arms again...but he was so different….he wasn’t HER Chase...he’d left her behind….they all had_

_Heroine….dying as she stumbled from the time machine into Chase’s arms...warning them about Victor…_

_Victor….._

_He’d confessed to her...he’d killed his nephew….and she’d absolved him...had kissed him….it wasn’t like kissing Chase, but it was something, and she’d been so alone...so she kept kissing him…..until she saw the look on Chase’s face…._

 

Sarah’s eyes snapped open, and she brought her hands up to block out the light. All Gert’s memories were there. Chase’s words from the last night when she’d been Gert echoed through her head….  
_  
I’m glad you finally found someone smart enough for you - but, don’t make me fucking pretend that there isn’t a knife twisting in my gut…._

_She tried to walk up to him, to grab his hand to comfort him, but he wrenched himself away, holding his hands up and backing away from her_

_I just need both of you to leave me the fuck alone!_

_He slammed the door behind him as he left and all she could do was stare after him. She knew him better than anyone in the world. He’d been her best friend and the only guy she’d ever loved, and she’d hurt him. She’d broken him. And there wasn’t anything she could do to make it better._

_She had no idea why she’d been so heartless. Why she thought he wouldn’t care. Was there some miserable, sick part of her that wanted to punish Chase for growing up and leaving her behind?_

_She couldn’t even look Victor in the eyes when he arrived a few seconds later, and she numbly agreed when he said they needed to get out of there, because she did need to leave. She needed to stay away from Chase so she couldn’t hurt him any more. There was no way to fix this and that was the only way to stop it from getting worse._

_The last thing she remembered after the time machine landed was a sting on the back of her neck and Victor smiling at her before everything went black.  
_

The headache was fading but it still took her some time before she could open her eyes. She was in the hall outside the room where Hunter had told them about Victorious, and she wasn’t ready to face that again. She crawled to her knees, and then slowly, unsteadily to her feet, and leaned against the wall for a minute. It sounded like Molly was returning, and she didn’t want to face anyone quite yet, so she slipped into the closest room and listened as she passed by. 

She leaned against the door once Molly was gone and glanced around the room. And….oh….she was in the room with Chase’s cryopod. She stepped forward slowly, raising her hand to the window where she could still see Chase’s face. Hunter had said it was too late to save him less than an hour ago. Absolutely everything had changed since then. 

An hour ago she had been Sarah and Chase had just been a cute, kind of complicated guy with some potential. Now she was Gert again, and Chase had been so much more to her, and god, she missed him. She missed him being goofy and optimistic and protective and….just him. He deserved so much better. She traced a finger along the glass, feeling the cold beneath it. Chase had always hated the cold. Before they found the base at the tar pits, when they were crashing in the frog and in abandoned buildings, he’d wrap as many blankets around the two of them as he could find at night, and would still complain about the cold. 

He hadn’t known he was in a coma in the hospital, but there he’d been in a warm room and surrounded by people who loved him. Here, he’d spent eighteen years frozen, and...the thought of him being alone and cold and slowly being killed...Gert dropped to her knees, leaning against the cryopod as she began to cry, praying that he hadn’t been aware of any of it...aware of being cold and alone and thinking everyone had forgotten about him when he died.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time:
> 
> He knew he wouldn’t find the Victorious programming - Ultron had buried Victorious in the core subroutines that were under his consciousness. They were the primary instruction sets that functioned before he was online, and how the hell was he supposed to be able to fix that? 
> 
> After everything, he was still doomed to be Victorious. He’d studied Ultron, and always knew he’d gotten off easy when they’d defeated him. But it was a lie. Ultron wanted them to think they’d won, because that was how Victor would be able to become part of their group...one of the family. If plan A had been for him to grow up thinking he was human and find his way to being an Avenger, then this was plan B: know he was a cyborg, but believe he had some choice about his destiny.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor finds his missing memories and makes a discovery that could give them a way to defeat Victorious.

Victor powered down everything but his core functions and ran a deep sector by sector diagnostic. He had noticed glitches in his memory – missing blocks of time that he had thought were the result of missing systems because, well, most of his systems went missing when he’d lost his body. But now he wasn’t sure about that. The missing blocks were scattered throughout his matrix – he fed them in to a processing queue to be reassembled and left that spinning away in the back of his mind.

He knew he wouldn’t find the Victorious programming - Ultron had buried Victorious in the core subroutines that were under his consciousness. They were the primary instruction sets that functioned before he was online, and how the hell was he supposed to be able to fix that? 

After everything, he was still doomed to be Victorious. He’d studied Ultron, and always knew he’d gotten off easy when they’d defeated him. But it was a lie. Ultron wanted them to think they’d won, because that was how Victor would be able to become part of their group...one of the family. If plan A had been for him to grow up thinking he was human and find his way to being an Avenger, then this was plan B: know he was a cyborg, but believe he had some choice about his destiny. 

As his memories were reassembled from the queue, he correlated them with the decrypted results from the Barrett cyborg….and, god...it was worse than he’d ever imagined.

It wasn’t just that some day he would become Victorious – it was that he himself – right now – he was Victorious. At least, he was during the times erased from his memory.

_He’d handed Gert over to Barrett while she was too distraught to wonder what he was doing. He’d lied to Chase so he could manipulate him into using the time machine to “look for Gert” while he snuck data feeds into time pods that gave future Victorious information he needed to adjust the past._

_And then Victorious...him… the future him… would use the time machine on his end to send back cyborgs to try to manipulate the past. Subtle pushes that nudged history in his favor over and over again….._

_Barrett taking Gert/Sarah to LA, and making sure she was at the right time and place for Chase to see her - then sending another cyborg to smash into Chase with a car so he could cover his tracks…._

_A data feed that put Chase’s details in front of Arcade when he was populating Murderworld..._

_Tweaking the time machine before he left for the Avengers so that it would be off just enough that Chase wouldn’t be able to save Gert at the time she’d originally died - because Gert would’ve figured out what he was before any of them if she’d been with them all along._

_He’d even sent back a next door neighbor in Nazi-occupied Poland who turned in the Jewish family next door because that would wipe out Chase’s mother’s family….or, it would have except for the one daughter that survived the camps._

Before Chase walked in on them – in the short time he and Gert were together – Victor had asked Gert about her future self who came back to warn them about him. She’d said that future Gert had loved him, and he’d betrayed her. He’d laughed at that, and said that would be impossible now. Except it obviously wasn’t. 

And, as much effort as Victorious put into keeping Gert from figuring out that he was Victor – he’d put even more effort into trying to kill Chase. What was so dangerous about having Chase around? Chase had built the body he was using, but if there were some flaw he could exploit, then Victor was sure that Victorious would have repaired it.

He ran a deeper scan into his hardware, pausing when he got to a vibranium casing in his chest. He could feel strands of vibranium that had been picked up by the nanobots and laced throughout his body, and all of it emanated from that one module. He paused for a second to try to prepare himself for the effects of the vibranium, and then pushed the scan past the outer casing.

And there it was. 

Chase, you beautiful paranoid genius. You never forgot what Gert from the future told you, did you? The others may have trusted him, but, thank god, you were still listening to future Gert.

Victor had murdered his nephew and betrayed his best friends, and he couldn’t come close to paying for those crimes. But they still had a time machine and he could do his damnedest to go back and save Chase before Victorious had him killed. Because Chase would know how to activate that intricately engineered vibranium bomb he’d put in his chest, and triggering Victorious’ self-destruct was the closest Victor was ever going to get to salvation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time:
> 
> Victor straightened up, standing defensively in front of Gert and Alex. Victorious’ eyes flashed and Victor caught a garbled fragment of an activation code. Victorious narrowed his eyes in concern, and Victor smiled. Thank you, you fucking mind scrambling vibranium, he thought. “Just let us go – we don’t even belong here,” Victor asked.
> 
> Victorious raised an eyebrow, “You know I can’t do that. If I let you go – in a time machine? You’d bring that cretin Stein here.” He smirked and glanced at Hunter, “Well, that other Stein cretin at least.” He leaned around Victor so he could see Gert, and held a hand out to her, “And, Cara – everything is as you left it in our home – one little mind wipe and it would be as if you were never gone.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As a plan forms to defeat Victorious, the lab is attacked.
> 
> Note:  
> It's comic book canon that Victorious is a villain - in this story that includes being an abusive, mind-altering rapist. There are fairly non-specific references to that here, so please skip if you find that difficult to read.

Gert had given herself an hour to grieve for Chase and everything they’d both lost. She wasn’t anywhere near finished crying, but this wasn’t over, and she needed to stow her feelings and get on with what needed to be done. She just wasn’t sure what what was anymore. They were originally trying to find what Chase had been poisoned with. Now? Stop Victorious? Go back and change this timeline? If they did change the timeline, what would happen here? Would it get worse or better?

She stepped into the lab where Victor was being held to see Hunter and Alex staring intently at a monitor while a probe scanned Victor from just outside his cage. “What’s going on?” she asked.

Alex looked up with a half smile on his face. She remembered that usually meant he was forming a plan. “Hey, Sarah,” he greeted her.

She shook her head, “I remember. You can call me Gert now.”

Hunter looked up and nodded, a frown on his face, “I’m sorry I had to tell you like that - “

Gert waved him away, “Needed to be done, and it’s better if it’s fast. “ She gestured at the probe, “What’s that?”

Alex straightened up and smiled, rubbing his hands together, “There’s a way to defeat Victorious.” She raised an eyebrow waiting for more, and moved toward the monitor when he gestured for her to do so. He pointed to a faintly glowing sphere on the screen, “That is a vibranium casing housing two dozen parallel connected high amp vibranium batteries.”

She raised an eyebrow, “I was a history major. You’re going to need to spell this out for me.”

Hunter smiled, “Power it up and it explodes and sends vibranium into every circuit in Victorious’ body. And, with the way Chase had the nanobots distribute the vibranium throughout the body, that takes out the neural pathways too.”

Gert smiled back in understanding, “And, goodbye Victorious,” she completed.

“Good riddance,” Victor added from his cage.

Ignoring Victor, Gert straightened up and crossed her arms. “So – how do we trigger it in Victorious?”

Alex grimaced, “That’s what we don’t know.”

“Chase would know,” Victor suggested.

Gert looked at him coldly. Now that she remembered every detail of what he’d taken from her – and worse, that he’d had Chase killed – she wasn’t sure she’d ever not be pissed off at him, and there was absolutely no way she could ever trust him again. She would never again be able to see the difference between the Victor she thought she had known and the evil Victorious who destroyed everything he touched. “How does that help us now that you finally managed to kill him?” she demanded.

“Cara - “ he started, using his pet name for her out of habit.

She stalked over to the cage, “No – you NEVER call me that again! Understood?”

Victor nodded slowly, “Gert – I’m sorry – If I could have stopped myself -”

She held up a hand, and he quieted, “No. I don’t give a shit about your excuses. You said Chase would know – that’s what you get to explain, and only that.”

He nodded silently, knowing better than to cross her, and then looked past her to Hunter, “I’m guessing that Victorious went out of his way to destroy Chase’s lab and any notebooks or drives or anything he had?”

Hunter nodded, “Yeah – a lot of Chase’s stuff disappeared over the years, but once Victorious stopped pretending to be a hero he started by destroying Chase’s lab.”

“Then we have to use the time machine again. We have to go back to a time before Victor and Gert returned - “

“Without me,” Alex interjected.

“And we have to save Chase,” Victor finished.

Gert continued to glare at him, “And how do we do that? We still don’t know what you had Barrett give him.”

Victor nodded, “We work around the problem. We take Chase with us to a point in the future where the technology is advanced enough to cure whatever it is that he was poisoned with.”

Gert narrowed her eyes as she considered Victor’s plan, and then looked over to Alex to get his opinion. He had a hand over his mouth and his brow furrowed. After a few seconds he began to nod and smile, and asked, “Where was it your parent’s got Lace? The 86th century?”

“87th century, “ Gert corrected, “I think 8670 was the furthest date in the future in the logs.” 

Alex nodded, “We can do this.” He pulled a notebook out of his pocket and began scribbling in it, but stopped and looked up at the sound of a loud thud from somewhere above them. He looked at Hunter questioningly, but before he could ask anything an alarm light on the wall began to flash.

“Shit,” Hunter muttered, typing out commands that locked down the lab by dropping heavy kevlar encased stone plates in front of the doors and windows. 

Gert heard the sounds moving down from the roof, then over to somewhere in the building, and felt the floor shake under her feet. It was quiet for a few seconds, followed by the sound of metal tearing as the doors in the hall outside were ripped to shreds. She and Alex both backed away toward the time machine, but before they could reach it a hole was blasted through both the door and the kevlar plated stone into the room.

Victorious entered, smiling at them and spreading out his arms to greet them, “Gert! And – Alex! It’s been so long. Eighteen years if my calculations are correct.” He looked at the cage around Victor and sneered, waving his hand at it. The charge around the cage vanished and both it and Victor dropped to the floor. Victor quickly got to his feet and backed himself toward the time machine, while Victorious chuckled, “Turned your back on Nico, didn’t you? Bitch hasn’t ever been the same since she lost that alien whore she was sleeping with.”

Victor straightened up, standing defensively in front of Gert and Alex. Victorious’ eyes flashed and Victor caught a garbled fragment of an activation code. Victorious narrowed his eyes in concern, and Victor smiled. Thank you, you fucking mind scrambling vibranium, he thought. “Just let us go – we don’t even belong here,” Victor asked.

Victorious raised an eyebrow, “You know I can’t do that. If I let you go – in a time machine? You’d bring that cretin Stein here.” He smirked and glanced at Hunter, “Well, that other Stein cretin at least.” He leaned around Victor so he could see Gert, and held a hand out to her, “And, Cara – everything is as you left it in our home – one little mind wipe and it would be as if you were never gone.”

“Listen you fucking mind-rapist,” Gert spat out, “I’m going to rip off your pathetic little tin can balls and shove them down your throat so no one has to listen to your fucking villain of the week monologue.”

Victorious laughed, pointing his finger at her, “That’s the Gert I love! It’s always so much fun wiping your memories away and watching you struggle to put it all together again. I don’t even remember how many times we’ve done this dance before...but, how about once more?”

Victor felt the activation signal start to broadcast, he guessed for Gert’s implant, and shouted, “No!” as he threw a shield around Gert, Alex and the time machine. 

Victorious frowned, crossed his arms, and turned to Victor. “Look, kid, you’re going to have to trust me on this. You need the time machine, so that means either her or Chase, and, between the two of us? In all the timelines I’ve set up, we’ve done both, and we enjoy the sex a lot more with her. Chase was always way too thin for us and, surprisingly, much less durable.”

Victor tried to ignore Victorious’ words and focused on collecting as much energy as he could find, building up a charge even stronger than Victorious’. He felt the pain from his organic components, but a moment later, the vibranium kicked in and the pain subsided. 

Victorious shrugged, “Have it your way.” Victorious hit first with a massive charge that nearly drove Victor to his knees, but Victor held his ground and started sapping some of the energy that was being used against him and turned it back on his attacker. 

The air crackled with energy between the older and younger versions of the cyborg, and Gert and Alex could barely make out either of them, but they did see Hunter, crawling along the ground trying to get to the relative safety of the time machine. Alex and Gert glanced at each other, and both nodded in silent agreement, dashing out to Hunter and helping him back to the machine. 

It didn’t look like Victor necessarily would win, and, even if he did, Gert still wouldn’t trust him. But, his plan had been a good one, and they really didn’t need him along for it anyway. She leaned over to Hunter and asked urgently, “How long after we left before you put Chase in the cryopod?”

Hunter looked confused for a moment, and then nodded as he understood what she was getting at, “Five days – but I’d give it about two weeks before we hooked him up to a portable power supply for emergencies.”

Gert nodded and pulled Alex over by the arm, whispering in his ear, “Set the controls to go back 15 days after we left.” Alex nodded, and crawled over to the console, beginning to set the dials.

Gert flinched as a sudden loud crack reverberated through the room. A large fragment of the kevlar encased stone shield hit Victorious from behind, driving him to his knees. Before he could get up, Molly grabbed him from behind, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing as she lifted him off the ground. Gert heard the sound of metal crunching, and then saw Victorious power up again. Molly screamed in pain as the electric charge ran through her body, but kept squeezing him.

The room began to get darker – at first Gert thought it was because the pyrotechnics from the fight had died down and the emergency lights had been knocked out, but after a few seconds she saw the black smoke surrounding Victorious, dissipating the charge and drawing energy out of his body until he sagged in Molly’s arms. Molly dropped him, and then swayed in place for a second before dropping to her knees and passing out herself.

When Gert had been Sarah, she’d taken emergency lifesaving classes, and her training kicked in instinctively. She rushed to Molly’s side and took her pulse – it was weak and erratic. “She needs a defibrillator,” she looked over to Hunter, who shook his head, and then looked over to Victor. “OK – you do it. 3000 volts in a millisecond.”

Victor’s eyes widened in fear and he backed away, shaking his head, “I...the vibranium...I don’t have that kind of control...I’d end up killing her...”

Gert cursed under her breath – he had told her about killing his nephew, and had blamed that on the vibranium. “OK, plan B. Again. Help me get her to the time machine. She’s coming back with us.”

Victor nodded, awkwardly scooping up Molly, and carried her to the time machine, gently settling her into one of the seats. Gert sat in the other seat and Alex stood between the two of them as Gert looked Victor in the eye and decreed, “You’re staying here.”

He nodded in agreement, “Yeah. Less chance of me fucking things up from here, and I can maybe help against him,” he said, nodding toward Victorious.

Nico helped Hunter away from the time machine, leaning him up against a cabinet, and then paused to kiss Molly’s forehead. She looked Gert in the eyes, “Take care of her.”

Gert’s mouth drew into a thin, tight smile, and she nodded, saying, “Try not to die,” before she threw the switch and they disappeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time:
> 
> Alex smiled as he explained, “We substitute an LMD for Chase. They’ll never know he’s gone.”
> 
> “Which would be fine if we had a way of getting one,” Gert pointed out.
> 
> Alex frowned and narrowed his eyes, considering the problem, and looking at Molly and Gert. “Do either of you know anyone from Shield during this time period? They still kind of consider me a criminal, so I’m out.”
> 
> Gert shook her head, but Molly smiled, and enthusiastically explained, “Not Shield – but I have got a contact! Gimme a phone!” she demanded, holding out her hand. Alex looked at her suspiciously, but handed his phone over. She began typing in a text message, “This’ll only take a second or two.” 
> 
> Four seconds after she hit “send” and handed the phone back to Alex a strong breeze swept through the room, scattering papers and takeout coffee cups, and a wiry, white haired man about Alex’s age, and wearing a green a white costume, suddenly appeared in their midst, staring at Molly, asking, “Molls?”


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gert, Molly and Alex get help from some of Molly's friends to keep the timeline intact while they save Chase.
> 
>  
> 
> Or - mini Young Avengers crossover. Because I read YA first, and miss them, and it's been EIGHT YEARS (!!!!) since Teddy proposed to Billy, and why the heck aren't they married yet?

The lab was dark when they arrived, and Gert jumped from the machine to grab the defibrillator from the wall while Alex pulled Molly from the machine so she was flat on the ground. “Back away!” Gert ordered as she set up the defibrillator, forcing herself to take the time to check the readout, and then sending the charge through Molly’s chest when the device said it was needed. Gert took her pulse as Alex knelt next to them, and she was about to start CPR when Molly suddenly gasped and sat up, grabbing at Gert’s arm. Gert leaned back and sighed in relief – mutant physiology for the win.

“What….” Molly was breathing heavily, and looked around herself in confusion. “Where the hell are we?”

Alex and Gert both sat back, sighing in relief. “Eighteen years ago,” Gert told her.

“Plus 15 days,” Alex added.

Molly smiled, “Seriously? So, I could sort of find thirteen year old me and tell her to not go to junior prom with Danny Morales two years from now because he turns out to be an asshole?”

Alex and Gert both laughed, and Alex muttered, “No – sorry Molls. You could disrupt the timeline and we might not be able to get you back to where you left from.”

Molly rolled her eyes and groaned, “Fine.” She hopped up to her feet and looked at the cryopod, smiling at Chase. “He’s still alive now, right?”

Gert wearily got up and leaned against the time machine, nodding, “Yeah, he should be.”

“So – what’s the plan?” Molly asked.

Alex pointed at the cryopod, “We take him to the 87th century and hope they’ve got a cure for whatever it is Victorious gave him.”

Molly shook her head, “And, how does that not disrupt the timeline? It’s not like we’re not going to notice if he’s gone. Hell, I was in here every afternoon reading to him pretty much until I went to college.”

Gert sighed, “She’s got a point.” Alex began tapping his finger against his lips and was staring into the distance. Gert smiled, “And, he’s coming up with a plan,” she observed.

“Is that what that look is?” Molly asked, and Gert nodded. 

They both watched him for a minute, when he suddenly snapped his fingers and announced, “LMD!”

“What the hell is an LMD?” Gert asked.

Molly narrowed her eyes, “Life Model Decoy. Shield uses them – or at least they did when they were fighting Victorious.”

Alex smiled and agreed enthusiastically, “Yes! Exactly!”

Get shook her head, raising her arms in a gesture that said what-the-hell? “Exactly what Wilder? What do we use an LMD for?”

“And, how do we get one?” Molly added.

Alex smiled as he explained, “We substitute an LMD for Chase. They’ll never know he’s gone.”

“Which would be fine if we had a way of getting one,” Gert pointed out.

Alex frowned and narrowed his eyes, considering the problem, and looking at Molly and Gert. “Do either of you know anyone from Shield during this time period? They still kind of consider me a criminal, so I’m out.”

Gert shook her head, but Molly smiled, and enthusiastically explained, “Not Shield – but I have got a contact! Gimme a phone!” she demanded, holding out her hand. Alex looked at her suspiciously, but handed his phone over. She began typing in a text message, “This’ll only take a second or two.” 

Four seconds after she hit “send” and handed the phone back to Alex a strong breeze swept through the room, scattering papers and takeout coffee cups, and a wiry, white haired man about Alex’s age, and wearing a green a white costume, suddenly appeared in their midst, staring at Molly, asking, “Molls?”

“Tommy!” Molly exclaimed, wrapping him up in a bear hug and picking him up off the ground.

She put him down and he looked at her in confusion briefly, before dissolving into a blur as he checked out his surroundings, and then stopped in front of her and asked again, “Molly?”

Molly chuckled and gestured over her shoulder to the time machine. “Time travel. I’m Molly from 18 years in the future.”

Tommy raised an eyebrow, “Please tell me this has nothing to do with Kang the Conqueror.”

“Nothing to do with Kang,” she confirmed, and then noticed they were all looking at her. She smiled brightly, and gestured to Gert and Alex, “OK, Tommy, this is Gert Yorkes and Alex Wilder. They were Runaways before they died and then came back, and please don’t ask because it’s way too complicated and we don’t have the time.”

Tommy pointed at Gert, and asked, “The Gert that Chase kept talking about? The one who gave him Old Lace?”

Molly nodded, “Yep – that’s her. Ok,” she turned to Gert and Alex and gestured at Tommy, “This is Tommy Shepherd, who used to be Speed from the Young Avengers.” 

“Young Avengers?” Gert asked warily. She mistrusted anything to do with the Avengers on principal after the Avengers had shoved them all into the foster care system. 

Tommy shrugged, “Yeah – used to be, but we sort of drifted apart. I don’t do much hero stuff these days.”

“But you still have the uniform,” Alex noted.

Tommy pointed at Alex’s clothes, “You wanna try Mach 20 in jeans and sneakers?” He turned to Molly and smiled, “So – whaddya need Molls?”

Molly pointed at the cryopod and explained, “K – Chase is dying, and we don’t have the tech to save him here, so we’re going to take him to really far in the future to cure him, but in the timeline I came from that never happened. So we need to leave a decoy behind, and we wanted to use an LMD, but haven’t got a way to get one.”

Tommy stared at Molly blankly for a second, and was about to say something, but then stopped himself and thought for a moment and asked, “Can I borrow a phone?” Alex raised a questioning eyebrow, and Tommy explained, “Sorry, dude, phones fuck with the aerodynamics.” Alex shook his head and handed his phone over. Tommy keyed in a text message, hit send, and explained as he handed the phone back, “This should only take a couple of minutes.”

Tommy turned around to look at the cryopod, “So – what happened to him?”

“He was poisoned with a neurotoxin,” Gert explained.

“By a bad guy from the future,” Molly added.

Tommy leaned against the cryopod, “Who isn’t Kang?”

Molly shook her head, “Not Kang.”

“Who, then?”

Alex, Gert and Molly looked at each other, and then decided that it really wasn’t a secret since future Gert had already told them about it. “His name is Victorious,” Alex said.

Tommy looked at them blankly, “Never heard of him.”

A blue light began to glow in the center of the room, and they all backed away from it as it quickly grew bigger, then flashed brightly. As the light faded it left two figures behind – one man who looked exactly like Tommy, except his hair was black, and a man about Molly’s size with green skin, leathery wings, and long blond hair – both wearing costumes. They paused, looked at each other, and then looked at Tommy for an explanation.

Tommy began to explain, at triple speed, “OK-so-Chase-was-poisoned-by-a-guy-from-the-future-not-Kang-and-they-want-to-take-him-way-in-the-future-to-cure-him-but-this-is-future-Molly-and-they-can’t-screw-up-her-timeline-because-Chase-didn’t-disappear-in-that.”

The dark haired man asked, “So, if it’s not Kang, who is it?”

Gert shook her head and interrupted, “Wait – how did you get all that?”

The green-skin blond guy smiled, and shape-shifted into a much more friendly looking human who resembled a football quarterback, “We’ve had way too much practice at listening to Tommy. I’m Teddy, and,” he gestured to the dark haired man, “This is my fiancée, Billy – who is sort of Tommy’s brother, but it’s kind of complicated.”

Billy waved at them, with a small smile. “So – future Molly?” he asked.

Molly smiled, “Hey Billy. How come you two aren’t married yet? What is it – eight years since you got engaged?”

Billy groaned and shook his head, while Teddy put an arm around his shoulders, chuckled, and explained, “We’re working on it, but stuff keeps getting in the way.” He kissed Billy on the top of the head and looked at Gert and Alex and asked, “I’m sorry, but I don’t think Tommy mentioned your names?”

Gert pointed to herself, “Gert Yorkes and, “ she gestured toward Alex, “Alex Wilder.”

Billy’s eyes widened as he asked, “Chase’s Gert?”

“Did he used to talk about me?” she asked, thinking back to Tommy’s reaction.

“All the time,” Tommy, Billy and Teddy said in unison.

Billy crossed his arms and looked at Gert skeptically, “How are you back from the dead? If you don’t mind me asking?” 

Gert shrugged and pointed to the time machine, “Chase went back in time and saved me.”

“And, then things got complicated,” Molly added.

Teddy guessed, “The not-Kang time travel stuff?”

“Nope, not Kang,” Alex filled in, “Victorious.”

“Victorious?” Billy repeated, his eyes widening, “Victor Mancha’s evil future self, Victorious?”

“You know who that is?” Tommy asked, surprised.

“Do you never read Wanda’s letters?” Billy demanded, rolling his eyes when Tommy shrugged nonchalantly.

Teddy approached Gert and Alex to explain while Tommy and Billy argued. “So – kind of a long story, but Wanda Maximoff was married to the Vision, and she used chaos magic to have twin sons created from two lost souls, but – it was chaos magic – so the kids sort of got erased from existence and they went back to being lost souls. But – again, chaos magic, they ended up getting reincarnated,” He nodded toward Billy and Tommy. “So, basically, those two are kind of the reincarnation of the kids of Wanda and the Vision, and Tommy has his uncle Quicksilver’s speed, and Billy has Wanda’s chaos magic. And, since Vision is sort of their dad, that makes Victor sort of their uncle, and the kid Victor killed – Vin – was sort of their half-brother.”

Gert stared at Teddy blankly, “And I thought things were complicated for us.”

Teddy chuckled, “Don’t even ask about my family.”

“So,” Alex asked, sighing tiredly, “Can you help us with an LMD?”

Teddy shook his head, “LMD – no. Billy and I kind of burned our bridges with Shield, and you really don’t want to deal with them if you don’t have to anyway because they can be major assholes depending on whoever it is who’s in charge that day. But, Billy may have something better.” He turned back to Billy and Tommy and called out, “Hey, babe?”

Startled, Billy looked back at Teddy and raised an eyebrow, “What’s up?”

“Can you cook up a decoy Chase-sickle?”

Billy shrugged, “Yeah – I think so.” He looked at the cryopod, breathed in deeply, and then closed his eyes to concentrate, holding one hand to his forehead and the other out toward Chase. He began to chant, “ _ **Decoy Chase-sickle Decoy Chase-sickle Decoy Chase-sickle ...**_ ” A blue light formed next to the cryopod, slowly growing and taking shape until a perfect duplicate of the pod popped into existence. 

Gert blinked in surprise and tried to keep her mouth from hanging open. Magic still kind of weirded her out. She raised an eyebrow and looked over at Billy, “Any chance you could save us some time and just heal him?”

Billy grimaced, “How bad was he before was put in the cryopod?”

“Hunter said he was closer to dead than alive. The cryopod was kind of a last-ditch effort thing,” Molly answered.

Billy frowned and shook his head, “Sorry – when someone is that far gone, I can’t guarantee that I could heal them, and trust me, no one wants me bringing back someone from the dead.”

“Not again,” Teddy agreed. Gert and Alex looked at each other with raised eyebrows, and Teddy noticed, chuckling, “But, I guess bringing someone back through time travel doesn’t have as much potential to let extra-dimensional beings into the multiverse, so I’m sure you guys are ok.”

Alex nodded with a tight smile, “Yeah, let’s hope so.” He walked over to the monitors connected to Chase’s cryopod, put them into a diagnostic, and then moved back to the pod, unhooking the wires. Once it was disconnected, he checked the panel on the pod and nodded, “We’re good – Molly – can you put Chase in the time machine?” Molly nodded, moving Chase’s cryopod over, and, without being asked, Teddy moved the decoy pod into the same position and began hooking up the cables to it. Alex brought the sensors back online and nodded approvingly. “OK – phase one of operation Chase-sickle is complete.”

Molly walked over to Teddy and Billy and hugged them, on in each arm, with Billy groaning as her hug forced the air out of his lungs. Teddy laughed and chastised, “Hey – don’t break my fiancée.”

Molly half-smiled, a fond tear rolling down her cheek, and quietly apologized, “Sorry. Forgot how delicate he was.”

Billy laughed, and patted her on the back as she moved on to Tommy and bent down to hug him. “Be careful, Molls,” he whispered.

She smiled at him, “Always am.” She glanced at Gert and Alex, and then bent over to whisper in Tommy’s ear, “And….maybe you should look in on Kate and see how she’s doing? OK?” Tommy raised an eyebrow, glancing over at Gert and Alex as well, and then smirked and winked at her before he disappeared in a green blur.

Gert, Alex and Molly all got into the time machine, with Molly between the two seats balancing the cryopod across her shoulders. Alex dialed up the coordinates from the log entry for the furthest in the future and nodded to Gert, who pulled the lever. As they were fading away, she swore she heard Billy say, “Good luck, team zombie!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time:
> 
> 8670 was not what Gert expected. Part of that may have been the time machine landing in what was effectively an archaeological site – otherwise known as what little was left of Hunter's house after roughly 6500 years, which was basically just a nondescript depressed area in the field. The rest of it was that pretty much all they could see were green, pristine fields and crisp blue skies. So – yay! that they hadn’t destroyed the planet, but where the fuck was the high tech that they needed to save Chase?


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gert, Molly and Alex find help in 8670 to wake Chase up.

8670 was not what Gert expected. Part of that may have been the time machine landing in what was effectively an archaeological site – otherwise known as what little was left of Hunter’s house after roughly 6500 years, which was basically just a nondescript depressed area in the field. The rest of it was that pretty much all they could see were green, pristine fields and crisp blue skies. So – yay! that they hadn’t destroyed the planet, but where the fuck was the high tech that they needed to save Chase?

They climbed out of the depression that the machine had landed in, and stood in the field looking around, with Molly carrying the cryopod across her shoulders. Molly quietly harumphed, sniffed the air, and nodded toward a range of hills in the distance. “This way,” she announced as she started across the field.

Alex and Gert struggled to keep up with her. “What’s that way?” Alex asked.

“Smells like civilization,” Molly answered with a shrug.

“Smells like civilization?” Gert repeated.

Molly smiled, “My senses may not be as sharp as any of the Wolverines, but I can pick up food from miles away.”

Alex and Gert looked at each other, shrugged, and followed her. After nearly an hour, Molly stopped, setting the cryopod down and shielding her eyes from the sun. Gert wiped the sweat from her forehead and looked in the same direction, but shook her head when she didn’t see anything. “What is it?” she asked.

“Company,” Molly said, taking a moment to stretch before she sat down on the ground with her back against the pod.

Alex shielded his eyes and thought he saw a speck in the distance, “Good company or bad company?”

Molly shrugged, “Beats me. But, they’re coming to us, so might as well wait here instead getting worn out going the rest of the way.” Gert looked around – if this was bad, there really wasn’t anywhere to hide, but Molly tapped her on the leg and smiled, “Don’t worry, boss, I’ll take care of ya.”

Gert rolled her eyes, but sat down next to Molly, while Alex sat on Molly’s other side. “So, what do we say to them?” 

Alex sighed, “We tell them the truth. For all we know, they already know who we are and why we’re here.”

Gert bit her lip worriedly, “Yeah, maybe.”

In just under two minutes the speck that Molly had spotted reached them, and Gert guessed it was what people used for transportation here. It hovered above the ground, was covered in a dirty glass dome, and, given the dents and the thick layer of dust covering it, she guessed it was the equivalent of a third-hand car. They got a look at the lone occupant when he or she exited and hit the ground none too gracefully. The person was tall and thin, wearing a dark set of coveralls and that extended over their feet and hands. They had no hair, very pale skin, delicate facial features, and were on the feminine side of androgynous, and, not knowing if asking would be well received, Gert decided to go with “her” until proven otherwise. The woman walked up to the group at the pod and blinked in surprise for a second before fiddling with a touch pad on her forearm.

Gert looked at Alex and Molly, who both shrugged at her. She took a deep breath before she stood up and walked over to the woman, brushed the dust off of herself, and extended a hand in greeting. “Um...hi...I’m Gert. We come in peace?”

The local looked up at her quizzically, and then shook her head, and held up one finger. Gert guessed the universal “give me a second” hand sign had made it through the millenia. Gert looked back at Alex and Molly who both shrugged again, but the two of them finally did stand up to get a better look at the woman.

The woman started to say, “Kwin da, tembe Kestred bak -”, but Gert shook her head to indicate she didn’t understand was was being said. The woman frowned and smacked the pad on her arm. It beeped a couple of times and she tried again, “Melket ter...understand me?”

Gert smiled enthusiastically and pointed at her, “That! I got the last part!”

The woman smiled back at Gert, “Wonderful! These translators are always so temperamental, and this one has been kredeltz for months now.” She glanced at the others, and did a double-take when she saw seven foot tall, all muscle Molly, her eyes going wide as she took a step back nervously. “Um...I’m Kestria – I’m the warden for this sector.” 

Gert continued to smile, glad that Kestria seemed friendly. “I’m Gert, and that is Alex and Molly,” she turned and pointed them out. She walked over to the pod, and crouched down next to it, pointing at the window where Chase was just barely visible. “And this is Chase. We need help to save him.”

Kestria’s eyes widened, “Of course! Please come with me – there’s a med bay at sector headquarters.”

“Sweet!” Molly muttered, picking up Chase’s cryopod and carrying it to the transport. 

Alex and Gert looked at each other suspiciously as Kestria and Molly got in the transport. “Did that seem a little too easy to you?” Gert asked.

Alex nodded, “Yes it did. As soon as Chase is awake, I say we get the hell out of here.”

Gert glanced at Kestria and grimaced, “Agreed.”

 

The sector headquarters was closer to what Gert had been expecting. The building was huge, sprawling what would have been an entire block back in their day, with expanses of crystal clear windows that let her see a few dozen people milling around inside. Kestria had called in while they were on the way, and a team of similarlly more or less androgynous people, wearing about the same clothes, met them at the door. They motioned to Molly to put the pod down, but she shook her head, “Nah – I’m good. Tell me where you want him.”

They looked at Molly in confusion, but continued on and led the group to what appeared to be a medical ward. They motioned again for Molly to put the pod down, which she did this time, and then leaned up against the wall, with Gert and Alex joining her. One of the staff walked up to them and motioned to the door, “You should wait outside.”

Gert was about to protest, but was beat to it by Molly, who planted her feet and shook her head. “I’m waiting here,” she said in a tone which did not invite argument.

Kestria had followed them, and motioned for them to move toward the door, insisting, “Your friend will be fine.”

Molly shrugged and raised an eyebrow, “I’m sure they know what they’re doing. Still staying here though.”

Kestria sighed resignedly, shook her head, and joined them at the edge of the room. She focused on the pad on her arm, tapping at the screen, and looking at it in confusion. She looked up, about to ask a question, but then shook her head and looked back down at her arm, keying in a few more codes. Kestria finally sighed again and looked up at them. “You’re not in the main database.” 

Gert and Alex looked at each other in alarm. Gert was about to start babbling out a cover story when the pad on Kestria’s arm beeped again. She looked at for a moment, then her eyes widened and she looked at Gert. “You’re a Yorkes?” she asked in alarm.

Crap, Gert thought, this can’t be good. Exactly how much had her parents fucked things up here for her? She glanced over to the medical team – Chase was still in the pod, and they were setting up equipment around him. Was this something that was going to stop them from curing him? Hopefully they’d keep treating him while she was being questioned, which meant her best bet would be to make them work for every bit of information she gave up. She looked back at Kestria and nodded, “Yes.” 

Kestria sighed, closing her eyes and shaking her head. “You time traveled here?” she asked, eyes still closed.

“It was the only way to save our friend,” Alex defended.

Kestria opened her eyes and nodded. “I understand.” She faced Gert and asked, “Are you the child of Dale and Stacey Yorkes?”

Gert swallowed nervously and asked, “Why would that matter?”

Kestria frowned at Gert’s uncooperativeness, and tried again, “Did you inherit their time machine?”

Gert hoped the moment of alarm she’d felt hadn’t shown on her face. They had to get back to stop Victorious – and there’d be no way to do it if they lost the time machine and got stranded here. She looked Kestria in the eyes and bluffed, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Kestria grimaced, and glanced at Alex and Molly, and then over to Chase. Turning back to Gert, she sighed and tried a different tack. “If you have a time machine, we’re not going to take it away from you. We can’t, in fact.” At Gert’s look of confusion, Kestria asked, “Did you parents inform you of the Europa Accords?”

Gert stared at Kestria blankly. ‘Accords’ did not sound good. She tried her best to look like she wasn’t planning on going back to change the past and answered, “No, can’t say they did.”

Kestria folded her arms, hitting a button to stop a beeping sound from her arm pad. “Time travel was unsupervised for hundreds of years, and it wrought havok as time travelers splintered the timelines they visited into more shards than could be counted. Oversight started in 8337 after a traveler from the Ling clan started a cascade of events that ended up sending Europa crashing into Jupiter, destabilizing half the solar system, and forcing dozens of interventions to prevent it from having occurred in the first place. The Europa Accords were enacted to stabilize the timeline as it stood at that moment. They ruled that there would be no new time travel, but time travel that had already been recorded would be allowed, as removing events that had occurred previously would shatter the timeline yet again.”

She unfolded her arms and began typing on her arm console again, “As a result, time travel machines were encoded with the psychic imprint of travelers who would need to use them for previously recorded past events.” She raised an eyebrow at the results on the console, and glanced toward Chase before turning back to look at Gert. “I expected you would have the psychic imprint from your parents – but your friend does as well.” Kestria raised an eyebrow, hoping for an explanation. 

“It’s kind of complicated,” Gert hedged.

Kestria sighed tiredly, “It’s time travel. It’s always complicated.”

“Hey,” Molly interrupted, gesturing over to Chase. The medical staff were positioning what looked like a satellite dish above the cryotube, with the antenna at its center starting to glow. “They are gonna thaw him out, right?”

Kestria nodded, “Of course, but first they have to bring him back to a minimal state of consciousness to ask his permission.”

Alex and Gert looked at each other, confused, “They what, now?” Alex asked.

Kestria shrugged, “What if he doesn’t want to be saved?”

“He wants to be saved,” Gert assured her.

“Still, we need to hear it from him,” Kestria insisted.

Molly chuckled. For the very brief time they’d used superhero names, Talkback had been the perfect name for Chase. “Well, this should be interesting,” she said with a smirk.

 

 

_Chase stared out the window and pulled the blanket tighter around himself. Snow. In Malibu. Or, to be more precise, his coma-soaked brain decided that he needed snow in what had been a gorgeous, warm, sunny perfect beach. Because of course it did._

_Fuck, he hated the cold._

_Seriously, what was going on out there? Last thing he remembered Molly was reading to him – something about a big black dog that was supposed to mean someone was gong to die – because that was what he needed to hear – then he sort of remembered getting real cold, and now this._

_Unless – maybe he had died, and this was death? If it was, then this sure wasn’t heaven, and hell was going to be pretty lonely with just him and the frog for all eternity. Speaking of which...”Hey, Frog?”_

_**Yes, Master Stein?** _

_“What’s going on out there?”_

_**It would appear to be snowing.** _

_“Yeah – got that. I meant outside in the not-in-a-coma world.” Chase waited, but there was no response. Because there wouldn’t be. Frog was just a memory for him, and frog didn’t know any better than he did what was going on in the real world. Or, if he was even part of the real world any more, because if he was dead, then it really didn’t matter any more._

_Chase folded himself into the chair and pulled the blanket over his head. Alive or dead, curling up into a tiny little blanket wrapped ball did help with the cold, or with being in hell, or whatever the fuck here was. What would help even more was if he could wrap himself around Gert the way he used to when they had first all run away from foster care and they were freezing their asses off at night, but there was no way he wanted her dragged into whatever this was. So, he was stuck with the blanket. He closed his eyes and figured he’d try to get some sleep. That was, if you could sleep when you were dead._

_**< bzzzrrrrtttt>..….chase stein...….<bzzzrrrrtttt>** _

_Chase opened his eyes and looked around warily. What the fuck was that? Did frog have some kind of evil twin or something?_

_**chase stein…..this is healer m’barta of district seven….please acknowledge if you can hear me, chase stein…** _

_Chase stood up and looked around the frog – it was getting brighter and the details were fading away in the glare. “Uh...yeah, I hear you, healer M’bama.”_

_**my name is m’barta, chase stein.** _

_“M’barta – got it. Sorry – I think my brain may have turned to jello in here.”_

_There was a pause, followed by, **we detect no brain damage due to the neurotoxin.**_

_“K...good to know,” Chase said warily. Whoever this guy was either didn’t know English very well, or had no sense of humor. Still – better than nothing. “So - what’s up, M’barta?”_

_**we need your permission before we can remove you from the cryopod and purge the neurotoxin from your system.** _

_Chase’s eyebrows rose, “Cryopod?” Yeah – that explained the cold all right. He was definitely going to blame Hunter for that one. “Uh, yeah, please, get me the fuck out of here, M’barta.”_

_**we also detected minor brain damage that was in place before you were subjected to the neurotoxin. would you like us to correct it?** _

_Chase raised an eyebrow. Well, he had been bashed on the head enough times that brain damage really didn’t come as a surprise, but it would probably be good to get some details before signing off of someone poking around with what was left of his brain. Just, you know, on general principle. “Um..what kind of brain damage?”_

_**minor tissue damage to the left hemisphere and cerebral cortex that result in visual language processing impairment** _

_Chase blinked slowly and let that sink in. It sort of sounded familiar….and then he remembered. “You mean the dyslexia? No dude – don’t fuck with that.”_

_There was a pause, and then a hesitant, **are you sure?**_

_“Yeah – I’m ok with it.”_

_**but you would be able to process information more easily -** _

_“Look – MB – it took me my entire life to get to where I almost understand how my brain works, and that is honestly a pretty massive achievement for me. I’m not taking any chances on screwing that up and having to go back to square one, OK?”_

_**you are sure?** _

_“Positive, dude.” He sat back down in the chair when the thought occurred to him, “Hey – how long have I been on ice?”_

_**the cryopod indicates you have been in stasis for 17 days** _

_“I...don’t think we came up with tech that can do what you’re saying you could do in 17 days.”_

_**you did time travel here** _

_“And….that explains a lot. So – what year is it, and who came along for the ride?”_

_**it is 8670. your companions are named molly hayes, alex wilder, and gert yorkes.** _

_Chase’s eyes widened as he sat back in the chair. The room began to darken and he felt himself dropping off to sleep, his last thoughts wondering what exactly had been happening without him that got Sarah back to being Gert…_

 

One of the staff pulled Kestria aside and spoke with her briefly. She had a perplexed expression when she returned to the group and asked, “Is there a reason that your friend would not want to be healed?”

Gert and Molly both started speaking over each other until Gert finally got out the shocked question, “He doesn’t want to wake up?”

Kestria shook her head, “Oh – no – I’m sorry – that’s not what I meant. He does want to be woken up, he just doesn’t want a previously existing brain injury to be healed.”

Gert ran a hand through her hair and breathed out a sigh of relief while Molly continued to look confused, “What brain injury?”

Kestria looked down at the pad on her arm, “Left hemisphere – affecting language processing. He said...” She paused and took a second to re-read his words, “He said that he almost understood how his brain worked, and he didn’t want to take any chances on screwing that up and having to start back at square one.” She looked back up with a raised eyebrow and watched as Gert, Molly and Alex all started to chuckle. “Are you sure he is of sound enough mind to make this decision? Are any of you a blood relation who could intervene?”

Molly held up a hand, asking for a moment, and after she was able to hold a straight face, she explained, “Do you have any records that go back to the early 21st century?” Kestria nodded and Molly continued, “Look up the adoption records for the state of California – Chase adopted me, so I guess that lets me speak for him, and if he says no, then it’s no.”

Kestria shrugged and went over to the staff to confirm the decision. Alex nudged Gert, and whispered, “Brain damage?”

Gert grimaced, “You remember one year at the Pride meeting when he had that big bandage around his head?”

Alex narrowed his eyes as he tried to recall, “Yeah – god - I think I was like 5?”

“That sounds about right – I barely remembered it, but Chase told me about it later. He had a concussion – his Mom took him to a specialist when he started having trouble reading, and they said he developed a type of dyslexia from it.”

Alex raised an eyebrow, “Well, that explains his handwriting.”

Molly leaned in and whispered, “Why didn’t he tell us he had dyslexia?”

Gert frowned, “His Dad had always made him feel ashamed of it.”

“But you knew,” Alex observed.

“I know pretty much everything about him,” Gert said with a shrug, and then shook her head as she realized she really couldn’t say that any more, and corrected herself, “Or, at least I used to.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time:
> 
> Even when she was with Victor, they both knew she loved Chase. She and Chase had always had their problems – she always thought someday he’d leave her for someone prettier, and he always thought someday she’d leave him for someone smarter. But, they were teenagers and someday was a long way off, so they’d lived in the moment and fell even more in love.
> 
> Until things got in the way. Nico kissed him, and he didn’t tell her because it didn’t mean anything to him and he didn’t want her to be hurt. She died, and by the time he brought her back, he’d grown up and left her behind. But, the biggest problem was they’d never really broken up, so he was blindsided by her kissing someone else. They weren’t together, but they weren’t not together, and absolutely nothing had been defined, because she was 16 and wasn’t ready to make those kinds of decisions about her life. And he wasn’t going to pressure her about it, because that’s who he was. So they’d been left in a kind of relationship limbo.
> 
> But, she wasn’t 16 any more.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gert recalls how everything went so wrong before she was kidnapped and makes a decision about her and Chase's futures.

_Chase used to love sleeping in before Gert died. They’d bury themselves under the covers and wouldn’t get out of bed until they were so hungry they had to. Then, they’d go out and grab some kind of sandwich and hang out and watch people, almost like they were normal teenagers in love. The best part was when he could make her laugh. Sometimes the laugh was just a little turn up at the corner of her mouth, but every once in a while she’d laugh so hard that she’d have to hold on to him to stop herself from falling over. She was always beautiful, but when she laughed she was spectacular._

_After he’d let her get killed he stopped sleeping in. The bed was empty without her, and, anyway, if he waited until he was hungry he’d never get up. Nothing had been right when she was gone. Now the only times he slept in was when he was still too drunk to get up. The others all knew to let him be. Except sometimes Molly, who would drag him out of bed saying he needed to take her to school or soccer or some other excuse. Nico or Karolina could have taken her – but she was worried about him, so she dragged him out of bed._

_Which kind of left him questioning what the hell was going on now. He was in bed, sort of half-way asleep, and really didn’t want to wake up He didn’t feel drunk or hungover, and he wasn’t tired, so he must have slept long enough that one of the others should be waking him up. Because they still worried about him, even though he lied to them that he was ok. Especially now that Gert was sort of back and sort of with someone else…._

_Wait….Sarah was back, who was sort of Gert? And...he’d been in the frog….and she’d been there….because of Lace...and then there was that weird kind of voice-of-God healer dude who wanted to fix his brain…and said Gert was there instead of Sarah_

_OK, yeah, he needed to wake up and figure out if he was actually remembering things or if this was some kind of coma-nightmare…_

_Fuck...the coma…._

_Funny how you kind of forget that your body was shutting down when you’re locked up in your head. It did sort of feel like it did when he woke up from the coma last time – comfortable where he was but knowing that he really should get up. Last time he was comfortable because he’d been on massive doses of oxycodone. Things were a lot more fuzzy then and his head was a lot more clear now, so hopefully he wouldn’t have to go through getting off the oxy again._

_He tried to focus on what little he could sense. He wasn’t cold any more, so they must have finished thawing him out, and thank god for that. His eyes were still closed, but it wasn’t as black as it was when the room was dark, so he figured it was probably daytime. No antiseptic smells, but voice-of-god-healer-dude had said it was 8670, and hospitals probably smelled different than what he was used to. He could sort of hear voices – just bits of conversations, but nothing very clearly. The non-coma world was there, but it was still just on the edge of what he could reach._

_He heard people moving around him and then it felt like someone brushed his hair out of his face and kissed his forehead. A few seconds later the bed tilted, like someone was sitting next to him, and then they were holding his hand.  
_

Chase had been placed in a recovery room the day before, and they’d been told he’d sleep another day or two, and they could go to their assigned quarters to wait, but none of them had left him alone. It wasn’t that they didn’t trust the medical staff who had saved him, they just wanted to be there when he woke up.

Well, maybe they didn’t trust them completely. Gert and Alex still thought this was too easy, while Molly just shrugged it off and figured she’d deal with whatever they had to deal with. 

They mostly sat quietly, leafing through the info-tablets the staff had given them, until Molly finally groaned in frustration as she hit another blocked site. “Fucking hell – what do they think we’re going to do if we see anything historical? We’re like fucking prehistoric cavemen to them anyway!”

Alex leaned back and raised an eyebrow, “When was the last time you ate, Molls?”

Molly shrugged and waved him off, “3 or so.”

“3 or so, what day?” Gert asked from the chair next to Chase’s bed.

Molly rolled her eyes, “All right – I haven’t eaten since yesterday, ok?”

“Not ok,” Alex said, pushing her up from her chair and pointing her to the door, “Let’s go get food and bring some back for Gert?”

“Yeah, fine,” Molly groaned out tiredly. She veered over to Chase’s bed, pushed the hair from his forehead and kissed it, whispering, “Wake up soon, doofus.”

Gert smiled as she watched them leave. Molly and Chase had always had a great relationship – both of them insisting they could take care of themselves, but spending so much time taking care of each other. They’d all been close, but Molly and Chase were more like siblings than any of the rest of them. And nothing – not comas or kidnappings or time travel – would change that.

She sat on the bed next to Chase and took his hand. She always thought of him the way they were when they were teenagers, and he looked so different from that now. Now he was so much paler and thinner. Probably from spending too much time in his lab. And too much time drinking. She bet he forgot to eat more often than not, and usually when he did eat it was probably because someone forced him too. That used to be her job, but she knew Molly had taken that over after she’d died.

It had all been such a confused mess when she came back. Before it had been her and Chase and when she felt scared or alone he was there for her. But, then he wasn’t there any more – at least not the Chase she knew. He was so different – they were all different - and she felt so alone. Victor was scared and alone as well, dealing with his addiction and guilt. He confessed his secrets, she absolved his guilt, and he looked at her like she was the most beautiful thing in the world. The way Chase used to look at her. Now, after six years of navigating life on her own it wouldn’t work on her, but she had been 16, and he was whatever age he was programmed to be, and it just sort of went from there.

That was kind of the point though, wasn’t it? He was programmed. It hadn’t occurred to 16 year old her that maybe Victorious using her had been part of that program all along and he was using her disassociation from the others as a way to gain her confidence. She wouldn’t ever know how much of what happened back then was Victor and how much was Victorious.

But even if she’d told her 16 year old self that Victor was playing her, she wouldn’t have listened. She had been so used to living in the moment that she hadn’t stopped to think of the consequences. She knew how upset Chase would be if he found them, but she’d convinced herself that they were being smart and careful and he’d never know. Except she kind of wanted him to know and to be jealous. She kind of wanted to punish him because he couldn’t be there for her the way he used to be. She definitely wanted him to look at her the way he used to, even if she knew the age difference made it impossible.

What better way to scream for attention than to cheat on him with the one guy he’d always been jealous of? She wouldn’t have admitted it then, but she knew it now - it was cheating. If it hadn’t been, they wouldn’t have been hiding it. She and Victor had lied to each other that they just wanted to tell Chase first before letting anyone else know they were together, but neither of them really felt the need to have that talk. Because, even when she was alone with Victor, they both knew she loved Chase. Talking to Chase would have shattered any illusions they had about what they were doing, and they both wanted to lie to themselves for a little while longer because that was better than being alone again.

She and Chase had always had their problems. To be honest, they should have been utterly incompatible. He was loud and crude and pretended to be dumber than he was. She was loud and abrasive and pretended to be stronger than she was. They should have hated each other, but somehow she saw the sweetness and loyalty in him and he saw the fear and vulnerability in her and it worked. They never thought they’d get forever, though. She always thought someday he’d leave her for someone prettier, and he always thought someday she’d leave him for someone smarter. But, they were teenagers and someday was a long way off, so they’d lived in the moment and fell even more in love. Until things got in the way. Nico kissed him, and he didn’t tell her because it didn’t mean anything to him and he didn’t want her to be hurt. She died, and by the time he brought her back, he’d grown up and left her behind. 

But the biggest problem was they’d never really broken up so he was blindsided by her kissing someone else. They weren’t together, but they weren’t not together, and absolutely nothing had been defined, because she was 16 and wasn’t ready to make those kinds of decisions about her life. And he wasn’t going to pressure her about it, because that’s who he was. So they’d been left in a kind of relationship limbo.

But she wasn’t 16 any more. She’d been a blank slate after the “accident” and had to reinvent herself from the ground up. She’d lived a life completely oblivious to the one she had before and had learned enough about herself to know what she wanted. And what she had wanted for as long as she’d been Sarah had looked a whole hell of a lot like Chase.

She’d always wondered why she’d been attracted to guys who looked like him. The first time she’d had sex as Sarah she realized she wasn’t a virgin and wondered if she was unknowingly pining after some guy she’d been in love with before the accident. Now she knew that she very much had been. So, whatever it was that made up Gert had still been there under it all. 

The question now was, where did they go from here? She still loved Chase. Based on the way he had looked at her, she was pretty sure he loved her as well. Age wasn’t an issue any more, unless he objected to being with someone who was two years older than him. She had changed a lot over the last six years, but they had needed to get to know each other again before Victor kidnapped her anyway. In the end the only thing that had really changed was that the insurmountable age difference was now gone.

Well, not the only thing. There was the little matter of her breaking his heart. 

She could apologize and she was pretty sure he’d accept it, because it was a mistake and he understood how easy it was to make mistakes. But that wouldn’t get rid of the underlying problem - that Chase thought he was temporary until she found someone “smarter”, and he thought that future Gert having been with Victor meant that it would inevitably happen. He never got that he was smart, just in a different way. Or that future Gert had come back in time to stop herself from being with Victor - which was probably something she should have remembered herself before kissing him.

It also didn’t help things that she had never told Chase she loved him. She came close so many times, but she had never gotten the words out. She’d been protecting herself, because back then she thought she was temporary as well, and if she never said the words then it would hurt less when he moved on to someone else. 

If they were going to be together that needed to end now. She needed to tell him exactly how she felt about him, and hope that she was right and he still felt the same way about her and that he’d forgive her.

He said he heard Molly reading to him when he was in the coma – hopefully he’d hear her. But, if he didn’t, she’d tell him again and again as many times as she needed to until he not only heard her but believed what she was telling him. She leaned forward, squeezing his hand, and tilted his face toward her. “Chase, honey, we need to talk.”

 

_**“Chase, honey, we need to talk.”** _

_That…was Gert. The voice sounded like Sarah, who sounded like an older Gert, but the words were definitely Gert._

_**“I remember that I’m Gert now, and I remember you and us and that last night before I was kidnapped - “** _

_...she had been kidnapped?….the fuck?_

_**“I need to tell you how sorry I am. I was lonely, and not sure who I was, and Victor seemed to get that. Kissing him was a mistake, and I am so sorry that I hurt you.”** _

_...ok….was she just telling him this to get him to wake up? Because Gert didn’t do apologies. But, then again, Gert didn’t lie to him either…_

_**“I never meant to run away from you and the others….I just wanted to give you some space so I wouldn’t hurt you any more….but I couldn’t get back. Victorious kidnapped me and took me six years into the past. He suppressed my memories and built Sarah out of what was left. But, part of me was still there, and part of me was always looking for you...because I missed you….and...”** _

_He heard her voice starting to waver, and he was **not** going to let her cry over him. He focused on the hand she was holding and focused on squeezing her fingers. He heard her choke back a laugh….and that was so much better. Her hand brushed the side of his face, and he felt her breath on his lips…._

_**“and, I love you, Chase…..”** _

_she….said she loves him….he knew she loved him before he went back for her even when she hadn’t said it, but everything had changed and she had kissed Victor but then she cried when she tried to talk to him about it and he wasn’t sure anymore…._

_...and now she said it…._

_…she loves him…._

_….he felt her lips brush against his…._

_….and kissing her back was the easiest thing he’d ever done in his life….._

 

Gert brushed back a tear as Chase returned her kiss and she saw his eyes flutter open. He began to look worried at the sight of her crying, but she shook her head and explained, “Happy tears. We almost lost you.” He blinked and the corners of his mouth twitched up in a smile, and then his eyes looked over to the doorway. Gert turned her head to see Molly and Alex standing in the doorway smiling at they watched them.

“Dude, you always gotta be such a drama queen,” Molly chuckled, and then elbowed Alex, “Whaddya think - Sleeping Beauty or Snow White?”

“Definitely Sleeping Beauty,” Alex answered sagely, “Lace counts as a dragon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time:
> 
> Gert wasn’t sure what time it was, but guessed it was a little before dawn – the lights in the room were synced to daylight, because for some reason that was how they did things in the future, and they hadn’t started coming up yet. She could have asked the voice operated computer for the time, but she didn’t want to wake Chase up. It had only been two days since he’d woken up from the coma, and the med staff were adamant that he continue to rest for at least another two days more before they start filling him in on all the convoluted details of how they’d gotten him here.
> 
> Of course, seeing a seven-foot tall Molly had prompted several questions from him, but Molly had just shrugged and said, “Time travel, dude,” and Chase had let it go at that. And she had told him about the implant, but he let that go as well when she promised that they’d fill him in completely once he’d recovered. It meant a lot that he trusted her, especially since the last time he’d seen her as Gert had been when she’d been 16 and broken his heart. Maybe he was so forgiving because he was still kind of out of it, but he was getting better, and he didn’t seem to be holding the past against her. Then again, Chase didn’t understand the concept of self-preservation for his heart any more than he understood it for his life.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chase starts to figure out what happened while he was in the coma.

Gert wasn’t sure what time it was, but guessed it was a little before dawn – the lights in the room were synced to daylight, because for some reason that was how they did things in the future, and they hadn’t started coming up yet. She could have asked the voice operated computer for the time, but she didn’t want to wake Chase up. It had only been two days since he’d woken up from the coma, and the med staff were adamant that he continue to rest for at least another two days more before they start filling him in on all the convoluted details of how they’d gotten him here.

Of course, seeing a seven-foot tall Molly had prompted several questions from him, but Molly had just shrugged and said, “Time travel, dude,” and Chase had let it go at that. And she had told him about the implant, but he let that go as well when she promised that they’d fill him in completely once he’d recovered. It meant a lot that he trusted her, especially since the last time he’d seen her as Gert had been when she’d been 16 and broken his heart. Maybe he was so forgiving because he was still kind of out of it, but he was getting better, and he didn’t seem to be holding the past against her. Then again, Chase didn’t understand the concept of self-preservation for his heart any more than he understood it for his life.

But he still wasn’t 100% yet. He was walking, and starting to eat, and staying awake for more than an hour or two at a time, but whatever they’d done to him to purge the neurotoxin from his system had taken a pretty heavy toll on him. And that was why she wanted him to sleep as much as he could now, because once they started planning how to stop Victorious she doubted he’d get any rest at all.

That wasn’t why she was awake, though. She was awake because it was her turn today. Today the medical staff were going to get rid of the implant that she’d unknowingly been carrying in her head for the last six years. The implant that wiped away Gert and turned her into Sarah. The implant that would have let Victorious control her and mind wipe her again and again. 

She closed her eyes and snuggled deeper into Chase’s arms as he spooned against her back. Before it had never mattered what was happening – once they were in bed and curled around each other, it would all disappear and she felt safe. But, today? It wasn’t that she was exactly worried that something would go wrong, but she did wonder what she might lose. Right now she was still part Sarah and part Gert. Without the implant, would Sarah disappear all together?

“I can hear you thinking,” Chase whispered.

Her mouth quirked up into a smile, “You’re supposed to be asleep.”

“So are you.”

“I’ll sleep during the operation.”

His arms curled around her tighter, “I wish you didn’t have to do that.”

She sighed heavily, “Me too, but it beats the alternative.”

Chase groaned and rolled onto his back. Gert twisted around so she was lying next to him and put her head on his chest. He kissed the top of her head, “Well, at least we get to recover together.”

Gert chuckled and looked up at him, “I guess we’re getting old. Spending time in bed together never used to mean just sleeping.”

Chase put a finger under her chin and winked, “Baby, once we’re both healthy, I am gonna rock your world.” 

Gert sputtered out a laugh as Chase waggled his eyebrows. She stretched up and kissed him, long and slow and lazy, eventually pulling away and smirking, “Looking forward to it, Stein.”

He smiled for a moment longer, but then his expression became serious. “Promise me you’re going to be ok? I can’t take losing you again.”

She looked him straight in the eyes, “I wish I could. I wish you could promise me that you’re going to start leading a safe, boring life doing nothing but reading blueprints for your uncle every day, and we could just get old together and never have to fight another supervillain again.”

“But...we can’t. Yeah, I get that. I don’t like it, but I get it. I will warn you about one thing, though – if MB and the docs here screw things up, I’m packing you into the cryopod and taking you another couple of thousand years into the future until we find someone who can fix you.”

Gert chuckled, “Whoever is in charge of time travel machines is so very much regretting letting us get our hands on one.”

“I’m kind of surprised they haven’t just shipped us back to the dark ages and taken it away from us already.”

Gert hesitated for a moment and bit her lip, “Spoilers.”

Chase raised an eyebrow, “What?”

Gert’s eyes widened, “That’s right! You never watched Dr. Who!”

Chase chuckled at her enthusiasm. Gert hadn’t been a fan-girl of anything before, so this from when she was Sarah. “We were kind of busy, y’know?”

Gert smiled, “When this is over? We’re bingeing it. By the time we’re done, you’ll be putting together your own sonic screwdriver.”

Chase smiled, brushing his hand along the side of her face. The smile on her face and glint in her eye was the most beautiful thing he’d seen in years. He’d do whatever he had to in order to keep it there. Even if it meant watching some show he had never heard of before, because if she liked it, then it was obviously good. “Looking forward to it babe.”

She smiled and kissed him again, “Go back to sleep.” He yawned and nodded and she wrapped an arm and leg over him. “And – us? We’re Amy and Rory.”

Chase muttered sleepily, “I have no idea what that means.”

Gert chuckled, “You will by the time I get through with you.”

 

Chase wanted to pace while he was waiting on word that Gert’s operation had been successful, but he knew that if he did he’d waste energy he didn’t have yet, and that would just put him right back to sleep. So he sat in the room where Kestria had asked them to wait and watched Molly as she paced. That was kind of interesting on its own, because he still wasn’t used to Molly being all hulked out. He could still see the girl he remembered under it all, which kind of made it even weirder.

Molly sighed and sat down on the floor, stretching out her legs. “How long has it been now?”

Chase didn’t even need to check his watch, “Two minutes since the last time you asked.” 

The door to the room slid open, and they both started to get to their feet, hoping for news, but groaned and sat back down when they saw it was Alex. “Wow, guys, thanks,” he muttered with a smile, handing them cups of a hot liquid that more or less passed for tea. “Nothing yet?” 

“Nothing yet.” Chase confirmed. He stretched his legs out, took a sip of the tea and grimaced. “So – no coffee in the 87th century?”

Alex recited the answer he’d received when he asked the same question, “Caffeine is bad for you and therefore a controlled substance.”

Chase smiled, “If booze is out too, that makes like 90 percent of my diet off limits.”

Molly stretched her leg out tapped Chase’s leg with her foot, “Yeah, right. Like Gert’s going to let you get drunk every night.”

“Only got drunk because Gert wasn’t there,” Chase shrugged.

Molly got up, walked over to Chase, and bent down to give him a hug as he sat in the chair. “I’m glad you two are back together. Don’t screw it up, doofus.” 

“I won’t screw it up, Molls.”

Molly nodded and waved at them as she headed out the door, “I need calories – be back in a few.”

Alex sat next to Chase and nudged him, “Hey – can I ask you something?”

“Depends on what you’re asking,” Chase replied, starting to zone out as the waiting wore on him.

“Why’d you do it?”

Chase blinked and stared at Alex for a moment. Maybe he missed part of the conversation? “You’re going to need to be more specific.”

“Why’d you put a bomb in Victor’s chest?”

Chase felt like the chair had slipped out from under him. How in the fuck did he know about that? And – did Gert know? If she knew and she was pissed off about it he was sure she’d have told him – she hadn’t changed that much. Nope – if she knew, she was ok with it. And, from Alex’s tone, so was he.

But – how had they found it? He’d shielded the casing in vibranium, so sensors should have bounced right off of it. The only way to find it short of disassembling the body would have been to run a deep diagnostic while the body was powered on – with Victor attached - but, they had no reason to take the body apart, and Victor wasn’t attached. Or at least he hadn’t before he’d gone comatose. “How did you find it?” he asked warily.

Alex grimaced. He knew Gert wanted Chase healthier before he got up to speed, and he kind of hoped that Chase was still too out of it to realize that they shouldn’t have known about the bomb. But he really needed more details if he was going to come up with a plan to destroy Victorious, and there was no point in turning back now. “After you were attacked, Victor had Doombot attach him to the body you were building. He ran a deep scan and found it.”

Chase frowned. Alex left out why Victor had run a scan, which was kind of important. Probably because Alex was scared of what Gert would do to him if he said too much before Gert thought he was recovered enough. But he felt like he was missing something. He got Victor finally attaching himself to the body – he wanted to help, and if Gert was trying to rescue him, Victor wouldn’t be too far behind her because he was in love with Gert too. But – why would he run a deep diagnostic? No – he was missing something….

...and then it hit him. The coma memories were kind of jumbled together, but some of them stood out….

_**...I couldn’t get back. Victorious kidnapped me and took me six years into the past….** _

Fuck. 

He’d kind of hoped that he’d gotten things confused while he was coming out of the coma, but he hadn’t. Victorious was responsible for what had happened to her, and he was the idiot who had let it happen right under his nose. Because, plus or minus some active take-over-the-world subroutines, Victor was Victorious, and since Victorious wasn’t there but Victor was – that meant Victor was the one who’d kidnapped Gert. 

Despite Gert-from-the-future’s warnings, he’d walked away and hadn’t said a word when the two of them got together. Because Gert had been so unhappy after he brought her back, and Victor seemed to make her happy. He hoped that they had stopped the transformation to Victorious that future Gert had warned them about. He hoped that Victor could make Gert happy, even if he couldn’t force himself to watch it happen. But if Victorious was in the driver’s seat that wasn’t an option, and it was his fucking fault for getting distracted and letting it happen.

He swallowed and forced himself to keep his voice steady as he asked “Is he dead?”

Alex looked at Chase in surprise. That did not sound like the Chase he knew – his voice was dead serious without a hint of the laid-back class clown he’d known his whole life. “No, not the last time we saw him at least. We didn’t know how to trigger the bomb.”

Chase nodded, staring into space as he remembered how he’d set up the components and their trigger points. “If Victorious knows about it, then he’s probably got an electromagnetic shield to prevent the radio trigger, but it can also be triggered either by a very strong UV blast or a heat blast from the Fistigons. He’s probably destroyed the Fistigons, so you’ll need to get Karolina to hit him with the highest amplitude, shortest wavelength ultra-violet she can blast out.” 

Chase looked over at Alex and saw an expression that screamed how-do-I-tell-him-more-bad-news. “What?” Chase demanded.

Alex sighed. Well, Gert was going to kill him anyway, so no point in stopping now, “Gert and Victor and I were trying to find a cure for the toxin you got hit with, but the time machine was kind of wonky and ended up taking us to 18 years in the future -”

“Where Molly’s from?”

“Yeah – and in that future Karolina’s dead. Victorious killed her.”

Chase’s mouth dropped open and he closed his eyes. After a few seconds he let out a deep breath, and cleared his throat before stating, “I’ll need to build new Fistigons.”

Alex nodded in agreement, “Once both you and Gert are recovered. We have a time machine – there’s no rush.” Alex hoped that Chase would be able to focus on getting better rather than on fighting Victorious. He watched as Chase stared blankly ahead, and guessed he was going over schematics in his head. Hoping to distract him, Alex asked, “So, you never did answer the question.”

“Hmm?” Chase asked, not looking at him.

“Why the bomb?”

Chase frowned, “I...I didn’t want to take any chances. I know all the girls can take care of themselves – better than I can take care of me – but Victorious is like a whole new level. I mean, aside from kissing Gert and Nico, he’s kind of like their brother, and they trust him, so they wouldn’t expect him to turn on them. I wanted to make sure I could stop him before he hurt anyone again.”

Alex’s eyebrows rose, “Again?”

Chase nodded, “Yeah. I mean, future Gert told us what he would do when he became Victorious, so that was still a possibility. And Ultron took him over without breaking a sweat – used him like a puppet and he ended up nearly killing Gert and almost ripped my arm off when I tried to stop him. God – she was bruised for weeks after that. We survived because Victor overrode Ultron’s programming by just sort of saying no to it, which always seemed kind of suspect to me because programming doesn’t work that way. At least not intentionally. But it was what happened with Vin Vision that clinched it.”

Alex remembered that Teddy had mentioned that Victor had killed his nephew. “Victor’s nephew? You knew about that?”

Chase rolled his eyes, “Dude – the Avengers sent me a head in a box. Yeah – I had questions. Fortunately Billy Kaplan knows every damn thing that goes on in the superhero world – plus Vin was kind of his brother - and in one phone call I find out that someone I thought was one of my best friends is an out of control vibranium addict who murdered a teenager.” Chase closed his eyes and shook his head, “You can NOT trust a junkie. EVER. I had to build the bomb because next time it could have been one of the girls. If Victor had been in his right mind he would have agreed with me 100%.”

“For what it’s worth, he did agree with you.”

“What?”

“When Victor found the bomb – he was the one who suggested that we take you to the future to find a cure so we knew how to trigger it.”

Chase shook his head skeptically. “I really wish I could trust that. I mean, we were more than friends – he was part of the family. But, there’s too much that could go wrong, and too many people I love who could get hurt.” He closed his eyes and thought of Gert’s kidnapping and whatever would happen to future Karolina, “Who do get hurt,” he corrected. 

He had built the bomb but hoped he’d never have to use it, because Victor was one of his best friends, and he really did want to save him. But if it came down to a choice between Victor and the girls? He’d destroy Victor in a heartbeat and the Victor who had been his friend would have wanted him to do it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time:
> 
> Gert vaguely registered that something was wrong and it took until she woke up completely before she realized that the problem was that Chase wasn’t in bed next to her. It was supposed to be their last recovery day and they’d fallen asleep together, but she was still in better shape than he was so she should have woken up before him. She sat up and blearily looked around the room, then stumbled over to the corner where he sat huddled over an info tablet. She draped herself over him, her arms over his shoulders, and kissed his cheek before she got a look at what he was reading. She got as far as “material replication parameters for directed energy -” before he switched it off, putting it down to pull her arms closer around him. “Sorry I woke you up,” he apologized.
> 
> “You didn’t. What were you reading?” He hesitated and she sighed, stopping him before he could answer. He was shit at lying to her and having him try wasn’t how she wanted to start their last rest day. “Molly knows better. It was Alex, wasn’t it?”


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gert fills in a few of the missing pieces for Chase.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay - it's been a busy couple of months, but I just finished up a different story, and I hope to have more time for this one now. 
> 
> In theory, this should take about 8 more chapters, but in practice I tend to ramble on so I'm guessing it's going to be a bit more than that.

Gert vaguely registered that something was wrong and it took until she woke up completely before she realized that the problem was that Chase wasn’t in bed next to her. It was supposed to be their last recovery day and she was kind of hoping they could sleep in the way they used to. She sat up and blearily looked around the room, then stumbled over to the corner where he sat huddled over an info tablet. She draped herself over him, her arms over his shoulders, and kissed his cheek before she got a look at what he was reading. She got as far as “material replication parameters for directed energy -” before he switched it off, putting it down to pull her arms closer around him. “Sorry I woke you up,” he apologized.

“You didn’t. What were you reading?” He hesitated and she sighed, stopping him before he could answer. He was shit at lying to her and having him try wasn’t how she wanted to start their last rest day. “Molly knows better. It was Alex, wasn’t it?”

“Not directly?” he hedged, twisting around in his chair to look at her. “He asked about the bomb in Victor’s chest, and then I remembered you said Victorious kidnapped you, and it all just sort of clicked, you know?”

She nodded, moving around to sit in his lap with her legs draped over one arm of the chair. He wrapped an arm around her back, and held her hand with his free hand. “How much do you know?” she asked in a quiet voice. He frowned and looked down, not wanting to answer, so she tugged at his hand. He looked up at her and she looked at him with a raised eyebrow that told him she’d figure it out if he lied.

He sighed and pulled her closer, “I know you and Alex and Victor were looking for a way to cure me, and ended up 18 years in the future – where Molly was from. And that Victorious killed Karolina there. And that Victor said he wanted you to cure me so that you could find out how to trigger the bomb and kill Victorious.” He closed his eyes and squeezed her hand, “And that Victorious kidnapped you.”

She frowned, “I shouldn’t have told you about that.”

Chase shook his head, “Blame it on Alex. Once I heard you say that you loved me, my brain sort of rebooted and I kind of lost track of everything else you were saying. It didn’t come back to me until he asked me why I put the bomb in Victor’s chest.”

Gert blinked in surprise, “Actually, that’s kind of a good question. Why did you put a bomb in his chest? Was it because of what future me told us?”

“Partly. I never forgot that. I mean – how could I? She died in my arms.” He frowned as he remembered the first time he’d seen her die, and then paused for a second before asking, “Did you know about what happened while he was with the Avengers?”

“The vibranium? And his nephew? Yeah – he told me.” She chuckled bitterly, “And I told him it was ok. That he was still good.”

“Maybe he was still good then?” Chase offered with a slight smile, “I mean, I couldn’t take the chance that he’d flip out again and hurt someone, but I didn’t see anything different after he booted back up. And when Doombot put together a body for him that had some serious firepower Victor couldn’t get away from it fast enough.”

Gert shook her head, “Nope. Not buying it. Victorious has been using Victor for a while – waking up just long enough to screw us over and then hiding away again before we got suspicious. Getting a heavily armed body would have been too obvious.”

“How? Does he have an evil master plan or something?” Chase asked. Gert frowned and he knew she was about to tell him to wait so he put a finger over her lips, “Please, don’t say “spoilers” - you guys are gonna fill me in soon anyway, right?.”

Gert brushed a hand along the side of his face and took a good look at him. He was much stronger now - thanks to the wonders of 87th century medicine, maybe even stronger than before he’d been attacked. And not telling him would just worry him more. She nodded, kissed the fingers on her lips and then held his hand with both of hers. “His evil master plan is using the time machine to get rid of things that could defeat him before they happen. But the problem is that he can’t use the time machine on his own – he needs either me or you to operate it. Kestria said that time machines are regulated by only allowing users who have a psychic imprint to operate them. I got the imprint from my parents, and you got it from the bond with Lace.” 

She brushed her hand up against where the implant used to be, “That’s why he gave me the implant – to control me and wipe my memory again whenever I started figuring things out. He mostly tried to kill you, I think – probably because he figured out about the bomb. Not sure if Victorious ever tried an implant with you, but - “, she paused and raised an eyebrow, wondering how Chase would take the next revelation, “well, he did say that he’d set up some timelines where he used you to control the time machine, but that he liked the sex better with me.”

Chase looked surprised and then slowly nodded in agreement, “Well, yeah. I mean, I haven’t ever tried sex with him, but I’m pretty sure I like it better with you too.” Gert laughed softly and put her hand on his chin, pulling him in closer and kissing him. He closed his eyes, sighed, and then looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “So – that’s it? Another teammate stabs us in the back and tries to take over the world?”

“You think we’d have picked up on it earlier this time,” Gert scowled.

“Doesn’t matter. We know now – and we’ll stop him,” Chase said confidently.

Gert forced a smile that she hoped looked sincere and pulled Chase into a hug. Victorious had the advantage of having tweaked god knew how many timelines, and there was always that chance that they were playing into his plans. And he had said Chase wasn’t “durable”. That flat-out scared her, because god only knew what he meant by that, and she never wanted either her or Chase to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time:
> 
> “Molly Hayes? Alex Wilder?” They both turned as they heard Kestria approaching and calling out to them. “Is everything alright?”
> 
> “Fine – no problems,” Alex answered.
> 
> Molly put an arm around Alex’s shoulders and squeezed, causing him to wince slightly, “Everything’s copacetic.”
> 
> Kestria smiled at them uncertainly, and then nodded. “That’s good. We wanted to brief you today.”
> 
> “Brief?” Gert asked, dropping back into the conversation.
> 
> “There are a few things you should know about time travel. Your agent would like to discuss your situation.”
> 
> “We have an agent?” Chase asked.
> 
> “And, apparently a situation,” Gert observed.
> 
> Kestria smiled nervously, “That may have been mistranslated.”
> 
> “Yeah, kinda hoping that it was,” Alex muttered.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gert confronts Alex about filling Chase in before he was ready and Molly makes sure Alex knows where he stands.

“ALEX WILDER!”

Alex had one blissfully peaceful day before Gert decided to call him on telling Chase about what had happened while he was comatose. To be fair, Chase hadn’t promised to not tell Gert that he knew anything, and had probably only avoided the topic while Gert was recovering in order to keep things calm around her. Somehow it must have come up and the result was his name being yelled from somewhere halfway across the headquarters. He considered it something of an accomplishment that he only flinched slightly. The headquarters staff, however, stared at them in utter horror.

He pasted on a smile and stood his ground as she approached, Chase a step behind her with a smirk on his face. “You made a quick recovery,” he observed.

“What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking I could get information I needed from Chase without cluing him in as to why I was asking,” he answered honestly.

“Dude, really?” Chase asked, offended. 

Alex shrugged in response, “I miscalculated.”

Gert threw her hands in the air, letting out an exasperated “You think?”

“Look – he’s fine, ok?” Alex defended, extending a hand out toward Chase.

Chase half-shrugged, “I am ok.”

Gert shook her head, “The doctors said you needed more rest.”

“Yes, they did say that,” Chase agreed.

“But, they were wrong,” Alex prompted, hoping for backup.

Chase frowned, “No, not really. I could’ve used another good night’s sleep.” 

“See!” Gert shouted, grabbing Chase’s hand as he looked down at her adoringly.

Molly wandered over eating what appeared to be a large submarine sandwich, “What’d I miss?”

“Chase siding with his girlfriend when he knows I’m right,” Alex muttered with a scowl.

Molly chuckled, “Dude, what’d you expect? He’s been in love with her ever since she saved his life when you tried to kill him.”

Chase looked up, smelling the sandwich, and tapped Molly on the arm, “Is that a sub?”

Molly nodded, ripping the sandwich in half and handing one piece to Chase. “Food replicator! I bugged the staff so much they showed me how to work it. Took a few tries, but I finally got something edible. Just needed to tweak all the settings to ‘unhealthy’ levels.”

Chase tore his portion in two and handed half to Gert before he took a bite and nodded approvingly, “K – you’re cooking from now on.” Gert took a bite and nodded in agreement.

Molly glanced at Alex who continued to scowl, and handed the remainder of her sub over to him, “First off – eat this. You’ll feel better.” Alex was about to protest, but stopped as he saw Molly’s raised eyebrow and sighed, starting to eat the food. “And second off?” She tilted her head over toward Gert and Chase, who were now huddled together and oblivious to the two of them. “You didn’t see them together the first time around. Get used to being ignored – we all had to. But, you? You gotta get used to not being trusted either. That whole trying to kill us thing, remember?”

Alex sighed and nodded, “How about you? Do you trust me?”

Molly shrugged, “Jury’s still out. You haven’t tried to kill anybody yet, but maybe you just haven’t had a reason to.” She crossed her arms and straightened up, looming over him, “But if you do try anything, I’m not 11 anymore. You hurt Chase or Gert or Nico or Hunter and you’ll find yourself back in hell before you even see me coming. Understood?”

Alex nodded, “Got it. For the record, though, I’m not going to hurt anyone.”

Molly backed a step away, pasting on a smile, “Well, then, you got nothing to worry about.”

“Molly Hayes? Alex Wilder?” They both turned as they heard Kestria approaching and calling out to them. “Is everything alright?”

“Fine – no problems,” Alex answered.

Molly put an arm around Alex’s shoulders and squeezed, causing him to wince slightly, “Everything’s copacetic.”

Kestria smiled at them uncertainly, and then nodded. “That’s good. We wanted to brief you today.”

“Brief?” Gert asked, dropping back into the conversation.

“There are a few things you should know about time travel. Your agent would like to discuss your situation.”

“We have an agent?” Chase asked.

“And, apparently a situation,” Gert observed.

Kestria smiled nervously, “That may have been mistranslated.”

“Yeah, kinda hoping that it was,” Alex muttered.

“Lead the way!” Molly said enthusiastically, still keeping her arm around Alex’s shoulders.

Kestria flashed another nervous smile, gestured toward a door behind her, and headed in. Gert, Chase, Alex and Molly all looked at each other, shrugged, and followed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time:
> 
> Chase came back to himself, looking first at Molly, and then noticing Gert’s expression. He swallowed and then gestured at the man. “I know him,” he explained.
> 
> The man cracked a smile and his voice had the hint of a Scottish brogue, “That you do.”
> 
> Gert walked back to Chase, putting a hand on his shoulders to steady him, “You ok?” she asked softly.
> 
> He let out a breath and nodded, “Yeah – it’s just….” he looked back at the man, “Coach Campbell?”
> 
> The man walked up to Chase and held out his hand, “I was for a while. We’ve been keeping an eye on you.”
> 
> Chase took the hand and shook it numbly while Gert raised an eyebrow and examined the man more closely. “I take it you’re our agent?”
> 
> The man turned to Gert and returned her appraising look. “Well, his agent. Not enough of us to go around, and some blokes need more looking after than others.”


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chase, Gert, Alex and Molly find out the details of their past and Victorious' plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two notes:
> 
> 1) I was a Once Upon a Time fan (specifically a Rumple fan), so one guess about how I'm picturing Duncan :)
> 
> 2) Avenger's Arena quote (issue 4) - not a great series, but it had Nico and Chase so, of course, I read it.

Molly poked her head into the room first, scouting out the surroundings to make sure there weren’t any potential dangers. The room had a table, six chairs, and one person – a middle aged man who was only slightly taller than Gert and who looked more like someone from when they came from than anyone else she’d seen since they’d arrived. For one thing, he had hair – not quite as long as Chase’s but definitely hair, gray and down to his shoulders.

The man raised an eyebrow at her, looking slightly offended at her observing him and she smirked. In the two weeks that they’d been here, everyone had been unfailingly polite. So polite it was actually kind of creepy. Seeing someone actually look at her disapprovingly felt so damn refreshing. But, maybe she’d just spent too long hanging out with the Wolverines.

She waved everyone in and then stood back as Gert and Alex stepped in front of her. When Chase didn’t follow she looked back and saw him standing in the doorway with a look of shock on his face. A second later Gert noticed that he hadn’t followed, and she turned to him with a raised eyebrow. Chase didn’t notice, and kept staring at the man. Molly reached out and tugged on his arm, “What’s up?”

Chase came back to himself, looking first at Molly, and then noticing Gert’s expression. He swallowed and then gestured at the man. “I know him,” he explained.

The man cracked a smile and his voice had the hint of a Scottish brogue, “That you do.”

Gert walked back to Chase, putting a hand on his shoulders to steady him, “You ok?” she asked softly.

He let out a breath and nodded, “Yeah – it’s just….” he looked back at the man, “Coach Campbell?”

The man walked up to Chase and held out his hand, “I was for a while. We’ve been keeping an eye on you.”

Chase took the hand and shook it numbly while Gert raised an eyebrow and examined the man more closely. “I take it you’re our agent?”

The man turned to Gert and returned her appraising look. “Well, his agent. Not enough of us to go around, and some blokes need more looking after than others.”

Gert raised an eyebrow and cracked a smile, “I won’t argue that.”

The man turned and walked to the front of the room, “Please – have a seat.”

As the others sat Molly looked at the chair and did a quick estimate that it wouldn’t hold her weight. After Kestria entered the room, Molly closed the door and leaned against it with her arms crossed. When there’s only one entrance, they were all better off if she was the one with her back up against it…..Shit….paranoia was becoming second nature...she had been spending too much time with the Wolverines.

The man crossed his arms and glanced over them before he took a seat. “Right, then. I’m Duncan Campbell. I’m a historian, specializing in the later part of the Industrial Realignment – which is basically where you lot are from.”

“Why were you keeping an eye on Chase, Mr. Campbell?” Gert asked.

The man leaned back and crossed his arms, “First off, call me Duncan. Second,” he nodded toward Chase, “Mr. Stein here is at a nexus point in the official timeline. We’ve established that he is essential to the downfall of a criminal named Victorious, and that Victorious has been taking very active measures to try to take Chase out of the picture. I’ve spent quite a few years making sure that Victorious doesn’t succeed.”

“How many years?” Chase asked, his voice controlled. Gert recognized the tone – it was him trying to keep from getting angry. She reached out and grabbed his hand. He glanced at her briefly and then turned back to Duncan.

Duncan sighed, and reluctantly answered, “Your entire life.”

“Was I that accident prone?”

Duncan shook his head, “No – not at all. Victorious was that persistent.”

“So – what – you’re like some kind of fairy godmother?” Molly asked with a smirk, breaking the tension. Chase continued to glare, but Alex and Gert both suppressed a laugh.

Duncan narrowed his eyes and scowled at Molly, “I think guardian angel would be more appropriate.”

“How many people did you let die to keep me alive?” Chase asked coldly. Gert turned to look at him and squeezed his hand. He glanced at her, swallowed, and looked back at Duncan, “Did you get Gert killed in my place?”

Duncan focused on Chase and spoke in a calm, steady voice, “It doesn’t work that way.”

Chase’s free hand clenched into a fist, and Alex and Molly moved closer to him as they noticed how angry he was becoming. “Then how the fuck does it work? Explain it to me.” 

Duncan sighed, thought for a moment and then sat down, unfazed by Chase’s anger. “I can only correct actions that have been taken to alter the timeline. Sadly, Ms Yorkes death at age 15 was out of my jurisdiction.”

Gert put a hand on Chase’s arm, and saw him starting to calm a little now that he knew she hadn’t been sacrificed for him. She folded her hands in front of herself and raised an eyebrow. “Kestria said you had a situation to explain – that sort of sounds like something needs to be fixed.”

Duncan nodded, “It does. You see, Victorious is desperate – he no longer has access to either you or Chase, so he’s lost access to the time machine. He considers that an unacceptable risk, so he activated a failsafe that connects to a different timeline.”

“And – are we in a different timeline, or is he?” Alex asked.

Duncan frowned, “I’m afraid it’s not that easy. Victorious has been pulling pieces from different timelines and altering events so that the timelines have not only been splitting apart but also merging together.”

Chase held on to Gert’s hand tighter as he asked impatiently, “Look – could you just spell it out? In really simple terms that I’m going to be able to understand?”

Duncan leaned forward, folding his hands in front of him, and speaking in a calm, measured voice, “In the history that I know – the timeline that we all share - Victorious was stopped before he was able to destroy the Avengers, and he was stopped because he never got control of the time machine. In another timeline, where Victorious did get control of the time machine, he needed to find someone to operate it once he’d lost both you and Ms. Yorkes, so he came to this timeline to get them.” Duncan paused for a moment and then turned to Molly. “Ms. Hayes – who is ReRe?”

Molly’s face lit up, “My god-daughter! Maria Ramirez-Stein!”

“Chase’s daughter?” Duncan prompted.

Molly started to nod and then stopped, looking confused, “Except...she can’t be, can she? Chase was in the cryotube.”

“Molly’s very understandable confusion is because Victorious pulled young Ms. Ramirez-Stein into his timeline from this one,” Duncan explained. 

Chase stood up, frustrated and defensive, and shouted, “There is NO WAY I have a kid. Especially not a kid with the name Ramirez and not Yorkes.” Gert placed a hand on Chase’s arm to calm him and tried her best to avoid the jealous twinge she felt over the thought of him having a child with someone else. 

“Please, Chase. Sit down and let me explain.” 

Chase ran an hand through his hair, and looked down at Gert who nodded at him, with a strained smile on her face. He sat down, leaned forward, and took Gert’s hand again. “Ball’s in your court, coach.”

Duncan looked over to Kestria, “I’m afraid your clearance isn’t high enough for this, Warden.” Kestria flashed a smile and nodded, leaving the room after Molly opened the door for her. Once she’d gone, Duncan leaned back and began. “In our timeline when Ms. Yorkes began seeing Mr. Mancha, Chase took himself out of the picture. He moved to New York for a few years, became something of an affiliate of the Young Avengers when they regrouped, and ended up rooming with Thomas Shepherd.”

“Aw, geez,” Molly groaned, “That’s a catastrophe waiting to happen.”

Duncan smiled, “What did happen was that Mr. Shepherd married a young woman named Theresa Ramirez – lovely girl, firefighter from New Mexico - and Chase was his best man. At the wedding, Chase met Theresa’s sister Elena – equally lovely, an EMT out of Chicago - and, after a very long courtship they eventually married. Several years after that Chase took a job with his uncle and he and Elena moved back to Los Angeles. In the meantime, Ms. Yorkes and Mr. Mancha’s relationship had become somewhat volatile.”

“Volatile?” Chase asked warily, thinking back to Vin Vision’s death.

Duncan shook his head, “Not abusive, but they did fight, and Mr. Mancha was somewhat less than faithful. Ms. Yorkes and Elena became very good friends and when she finally left Mr. Mancha she moved in with Chase, Elena, and their infant daughter Maria.”

“But, he wasn’t Victorious?” Alex asked.

Duncan shook his head, “He was using vibranium again. That suppressed the Victorious subroutines. But it also affected his reasoning. He became convinced that Ms. Yorkes was having an affair with Chase and as a result he attempted to murder Chase. He rigged an explosion – Chase survived, but, unfortunately Elena and Maria were killed. While Chase was recuperating, Ms. Yorkes discovered that Mr. Mancha had caused the explosion, and he killed her as well.”

Chase chuckled bitterly, “And my record of being the idiot kung fu master of surviving horrible terrifying shit remains unbroken.”

“Almost,” Duncan said with a grimace. After Ms. Yorkes’ death you hunted down Mr. Mancha and activated the vibranium bomb you had implanted. Neither of you survived that explosion.”

“Well, I got that to look forward to, I guess.”

Gert shook her head, “Except – that’s not what happened. I mean, maybe if I hadn’t been kidnapped things might have worked out that way, but I was kidnapped, and I can guarantee you that I will never again be in any kind of a relationship with Victor.”

“And there’s the paradox,” Duncan agreed. “When Victorious tied the two timelines together, his only objective was to rescue Maria from the explosion so he could use her for the time machine. But you can’t completely control how much leaks between timelines when you connect them and an event from his timeline leaked through. Specifically, the event where an older version of himself activated the Victorious protocols in his younger self, causing Ms. Yorkes to be kidnapped, and the chain of events that led you here.”

Alex folded his arms, “OK. So, for want of a better term, history got fucked up.”

Duncan huffed out a laugh, “I’d say that’s an accurate assessment.”

“What do you want us to do about it? Is your endgame putting things back the way your history was supposed to have gone? Can you even put that genie back in the bottle?” Alex wondered.

Duncan shook his head, “There’s a common misconception that when a timeline is altered it has to be completely restored or it will spin you off into some completely different future -”

“And it won’t?” Gert asked.

“No – it won’t. If you get the major events to align, the lesser details are negotiable.”

“Which then begs the question – what are the major events?” Alex asked.

“For our purposes, stopping Victorious. Our timeline has already been rewritten to accommodate the changes he’s introduced up to your last meeting with him. We’d prefer not to have the timeline altered significantly further.”

“What about Maria?” Molly asked. “I mean, if Chase never gets together with her Mom, then how can she exist?”

Duncan sighed, “She’s another paradox. But, as long as there is the possibility of a timeline where she exists, the time machine can use that to preserve her existence.”

Gert tried to gauge how well Chase was taking all of this and the fairly obvious answer was that it wasn’t well. He was nervously tapping his foot and chewed on his lip, and when she pulled on his hand to get his attention, his mouth drew into a tight frown. “Duncan – can we have a few minutes to discuss this amongst ourselves?” she requested.

Duncan nodded and Molly opened the door to let him out. “So,” Alex started, “What do we all think about this?”

Chase got up and started pacing anxiously, “Other than that it’s fucking bullshit?”

Molly frowned, “Except it’s not – because I’ve got two sets of memories rattling around in my head – and I’ve got no fucking clue which one is real.”

“Or if they both are,” Alex suggested.

Chase stopped pacing and leaned over, grasping the back of a chair. “Does it even matter? I mean, regardless of whatever the fuck it is Victorious did to get us here, the point is that we’ve got to stop him. From what Coach Campbell said, if we don’t stop him, it’s not like he’s going to leave us alone.”

“Plus, he’s got Maria,” Molly added with a grimace.

“And who knows what he’s doing to Hunter and Nico,” Alex added.

Chase twisted around to look at Gert, remembering how confused she’d been when she was finding her way back to herself, and how scared she’d been about getting the implant removed. Victorious had done that, and given the opportunity would do even worse. So, how was this even a decision? Chase slammed his hands down on the table. “Right. Victorious is going down,” and then wheeled around toward Alex, “OK, boss. What’s the plan?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully I didn't introduce too many inconsistencies into the plot - please point them out if they're there and I'll try to work around them going forward.
> 
> Next Time:
> 
> Chase huffed out a laugh, “Well, that’s a first. Since when did you care about the rest of us?”
> 
> “Look, I am sorry about selling you all out. I was a kid and I believed in my parents when I shouldn’t have. If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have let you all down. I wouldn’t have tried to kill you.”
> 
> Chase smirked, “People try to kill me all the time – I can roll with that. Hell, if you hadn’t gotten me drowned, I might’ve never gotten together with Gert. But Gert being murdered because of your creepy friends? I can’t forgive that, and I don’t see how you’re any different than those assholes. For all your brains you’re still too quick to trust someone with a sob story you relate to. Remember Topher?”
> 
> Alex sighed, “Point taken. So, nothing I can do to prove myself?”
> 
> Chase shrugged and walked back to the firing line to join Alex, “Us all making it out alive would be a good place to start. But if I don’t make it I’ll settle for you making sure Gert’s ok.”


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Alex and Chase practice for the mission, Molly finds out why Chase left and gives Gert relationship advice.

“You’re thinking about it too much.”

Alex huffed out a frustrated sigh and readjusted his footing. He put his hands out, held his breath, and slowly squeezed the firing levers on the palms of the fistigons. The flames singed the lower left corner of the target, which was at least an improvement over the previous attempt that had shot two feet above the target and nearly barbecued Kestria on the observation deck. It was kind of a relief when she’d abandoned that spot to watch from behind them.

Chase stepped in front of him, “All you gotta do is step in, hit the lever, adjust while firing, and then lever off. Watch me.” Chase stepped forward with his right foot, swung the fistigons around and started to fire before they were on target. By the time the flames had reached the target he’d already let go of the levers and was back to where he’d started.

“Showoff,” Alex accused.

“Dude, just practice. The whole point of having a room to practice in is that you can break as much shit as you like until you get the hang of it. Besides, you were the one who said that we were better off with two pairs of fistigons _just in case_.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Alex muttered. He rolled his neck to try to loosen up, and closed his eyes to focus himself. He put his right foot forward, started to swing his arms up, hit the levers, and then let the levers go as he finished the arc of the swing. The damage was more impressive this time – the target and a swath three feet on either side of it was in flames. Smoke began to fill the room in the few seconds before the automated fire suppression knocked out the fire. Alex turned to Chase with a raised eyebrow, and saw Chase smirking at him. “What?” Alex said defensively, “I got the target!”

Chase laughed, “Yes. Yes you did.” Chase moved to the front of the room and set up another batch of targets. “I was just thinking back to when we first ran away and everyone was giving me shit for practicing with the fistigons.”

“Dude – flaming monkey!”

“It was a samurai!” Chase laughed, “OK, maybe you had to squint to see it. A lot. But, you know….”

Alex chuckled as he adjusted the fit of the fistigons, “Yeah, yeah….” He closed his eyes, took a second to focus, and then stepped forward, once again hitting the firing lever as he swung the fistigons up, but waiting a fraction of a second longer and ending it a fraction of a second sooner. When he glanced back at the target it was in flames, and the two targets flanking it were barely singed. “Yes!” he exclaimed.

“Dude!” Chase held a hand up for a high five, and then clapped him on the back. After a moment’s pause he nodded back to the targets, “And now you just gotta do that another couple of dozen times.”

Alex’s face fell, “Are you kidding?”

Chase shook his head, “Sorry dude. I know practice sucks, but you gotta do the grunt work if you want to do it without thinking.”

Alex sighed tiredly and nodded, “Yeah, yeah, I get it.”

As Chase went downrange to rearrange the targets he called back, “Hey – Wilder?”

Alex didn’t look up from the adjustments he was making to the fistigons as he called back, “Yeah?”

“I want to ask a favor.”

“Yeah?”

Chase hesitated briefly, “I think there may be a really good chance that I don’t make it out of this one. If I don’t, I want you to promise me that you’ll get Gert back to the hostel in our timeline. I want to make sure she’s got Lace and the girls if I’m not there.”

Alex shook his head, “We’re all making it back.”

Chase shrugged, “Hey, no one wants that more than me, but it looks like my charmed life was due to a fairy godfather whose been fattening me up for the main event of taking out Victorious. He didn’t seem too broken up about me dying along with Victorious in his timeline’s original edition.”

Alex frowned as he thought about Chase’s take on Duncan’s story. “The original timeline has been shattered – as long as you kill Victorious, the rest of the details are up to us. We’re all making it back.”

Chase huffed out a laugh, “Well, that’s a first. Since when did you care about the rest of us?”

“Look, I am sorry about selling you all out. I was a kid and I believed in my parents when I shouldn’t have. If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have let you all down. I wouldn’t have tried to kill you.”

Chase smirked, “People try to kill me all the time – I can roll with that. Hell, if you hadn’t gotten me drowned, I might’ve never gotten together with Gert. But Gert being murdered because of your creepy friends? I can’t forgive that, and I don’t see how you’re any different than those assholes. For all your brains you’re still too quick to trust someone with a sob story you relate to. Remember Topher?”

Alex sighed, “Point taken. So, nothing I can do to prove myself?”

Chase shrugged and walked back to the firing line to join Alex, “Us all making it out alive would be a good place to start. But if I don’t make it I’ll settle for you making sure Gert’s ok.”

Alex nodded solemnly, “Deal.” He waited for Chase to move out of the line of fire and aimed for the targets again, muttering under his breath,“But it doesn’t matter because we’re all making it out alive.”

 

When Gert had asked her for help she had thought it was because Gert wanted a few self defense lessons, and Molly was more than prepared for that. Molly was significantly less prepared when Gert handed her a drawing of lingerie and asked for her help in setting up the replicator to make it for her. On the one hand, it kind of felt like helping your parents have sex. On the other hand, she was more than willing to do anything she could to make sure those two idiots stayed together. 

Her memories might be jumbled up, but she did remember that in both timelines Gert and Victor just didn’t work and Chase had either been miserable for years until he found Elena or he was on ice until Victorious finally managed to take him out of the picture. And while Elena was seriously cool and ReRe was her most favorite person in the world, if she could save the future in at least one timeline by keeping the idiots together in the first place, then she was pretty sure Elena would be able to find some other barely functional depressed alcoholic to save instead of Chase.

Of course, there was the question of why Chase had run all the way across the country in the first place, because she’d never really been clear on what had happened back then. Duncan had said that Chase moved to New York because Gert had started seeing Victor, but they’d gotten together after that, hadn’t they? 

She remembered how she found out – she woke up on a Saturday morning to Gert freaking out because Chase had left a note saying he was going away, and then Gert was screaming at Victor that it was all his fault. It didn’t make sense to her at the time, but it did make sense now if Gert and Victor were already together and that was what caused Chase to leave. 

And if that was how it went down, then it absolutely made sense that Chase wouldn’t tell anyone exactly why he left because he knew that would blow back on Gert. He’d rather let them all think that he ran to the other side of the country because he was having some kind of alcoholic meltdown than do anything that might cause Gert any problems.

Not that this Gert necessarily knew what had happened since her timeline had been fucked up by Victorious, but she might at least have some clues. “So, can I ask you a question?” she ventured.

“Mm-hm,” Gert mumbled distractedly as she tweaked the replicator settings.

“Why do you think Chase ran away in the original timeline here?” Molly watched as she suddenly had Gert’s full attention, and that pretty much told her all she needed to know. “So, you cheated on Chase with Victor?”

Gert looked down, avoiding Molly’s eyes, and hesitantly acknowledged, “Yeah. I kissed him, and Chase walked in on it.” She crossed her arms defensively, “It wasn’t the first time it happened either, so it was kind of like tempting fate with us all living on top of each other. Sooner or later he was going to know about it. I’ve gone over it so many times in my head that I could give you a hundred reasons for why I did it, but in the end it all boiled down to me being 16 and stupid and pissed off and lonely.”

“Pissed off because we left you behind?”

Gert frowned, “Mostly that Chase left me behind, I think. I was so used to just being half of a couple that when he suddenly wasn’t there anymore I felt so fucking off balance. I missed him so much, and part of me thinks I wanted him to see me kissing Victor so he’d get jealous and look at me again. Or, maybe I just wanted to hurt him because it hurt me so much that he wasn’t there the way he used to be.” She shook her head, “But, why it happened doesn’t matter. What matters is what it did to Chase, and...god….I’m never going to forget the look on his face when he saw us...he couldn't even stand to be in the same room as me anymore...”

Gert hadn’t realized she’d started crying until she felt Molly’s arms around her and heard her whispering, “It’s gonna be ok, Gert.”

“Is it?” Gert sniffled, “Because even if we do survive Victorious, that doesn’t mean Chase and I are going to be ok. I mean, I told him I’m sorry, but I broke his heart – and even if he says he forgives me, I know part of him won’t trust me the same way ever again. And – god – how fucking hypocritical am I? I mean, I broke up with Chase because Nico kissed him – and he pushed her away! And now I expect him to forget what he walked in on?”

Molly tightened her hug, “You know him, Gert. He loves you, and he trusts you just as much now as when you two were teenagers. He may not forget what happened, but you know damn well he’ll forgive you anything.”

Gert wrestled herself free from Molly’s embrace and started pacing, “He shouldn’t have to forgive me! He shouldn’t be with someone who could deliberately hurt him like that. He should be with that woman Elena and be married and safe and have babies with her!”

Molly reached over and grabbed Gert’s shoulders, turning Gert to face her. “Look – I’m not saying that Elena wasn’t cool, or that she wasn’t good for Chase, but he always loved you even when he was with her. She knew that, and she was ok with it because she had someone in her past that she was always going to be in love with too. They were both each other’s second chances, and they made it work. But making it work isn’t the same as being with your soulmate.”

“Soulmate?” Gert sputtered disbelievingly, “I kind of think I lost any chance at that after I cheated on him.”

Molly rolled her eyes. She had almost forgotten how Gert could start pinging when she was worked up over something. “Gert, look – him forgiving you isn’t the problem. You forgiving you is the problem.”

Gert's mouth was set in a stubborn frown, “Why should I forgive myself? What kind of person am I that I could deliberately hurt someone that I’m supposed to love like that?”

“You said it yourself! You were 16 and your life had just been ripped apart. Even YOU are allowed to do stupid things. You aint that far off from the rest of us.” Gert continued to shake her head, and Molly sighed, reaching over and brushing the hair away from her face. “I’ve kind of got some insight into all of this. Not only do I have 18 more years of memories than you, I’ve got 18 more years of memories from two different timelines, so this is going to be some sage shit, ok?” 

Gert looked up at Molly suspiciously, but nodded, so Molly counted that as a win and continued, “You and Chase have always had problems. He always thought you’d be better off with someone smarter than him – so he took off for New York so you could have that chance. You always thought he’d end up with someone prettier or nicer – so you freaked out when Nico kissed him, and you’re freaking out right now that in some timeline some version of Chase ended up with another woman years after you two broke up. The problem hasn’t been that you don’t love him or he doesn’t love you, it’s that you both have massive self-esteem issues so you think you’re not good enough for him and he thinks he’s not good enough for you. You two idiots have got to get it through your heads that you are perfect for each other. Seriously. Fate of the world depends on it. You end up with Victor and everything goes to shit.”

Gert huffed out a laugh at Molly's conclusion, but then was silent for a long moment as she considered Molly’s take on things. Her first instinct was to tell Molly she was wrong, but she knew Molly wouldn't let that go without an argument. Gert was pretty sure she'd lose that argument too because Molly wasn't wrong at all. 

She already knew that the only way she and Chase would be able to move forward – really move forward and not have this come crashing back on them – was for them both to realize that they not only loved each other, but that they weren't just temporary placeholders until someone better came along. Regardless of whatever reasons either of them might think there might be. 

She needed to make sure Chase knew that she wasn't somehow settling for him. She needed to accept that she wasn't as toxic as she sometimes felt, and that she wouldn't end up dragging Chase down with her. She had to admit to herself that things working out was an actual possibility – and a possibility that she really, really wanted. She wanted to finally get the second chance with him that they'd missed out on the last time.

Now, she just needed to tell all of that to Chase. 

She pasted on a smile and looked up at Molly. “Thanks. I needed that. When did you get to be so wise?”

Molly shrugged, “You should hear what I come up with after a couple of bottles of whiskey. Downright epic.” Molly held out her arms for a hug and Gert stepped into them. Molly whispered, “Just talk to him, ok? Feel free to pass on my epic wisdom.”

Gert squeezed Molly's arm as she moved out of the hug, “Thanks, Molls.”

“Hey, I got a vested interest in you two. You have any problems with the doofus, send him to me and I’ll straighten him out.” A ping sounded from the replicator, and they both stepped over to it to look at the finished garment. Molly whistled, “He sees you in that, though, and I don’t think there’s going to be that much talking.”

Gert bit her lip, “That was kind of the original plan? I mean, yes, I was kind of jealous, and...I don’t know – I guess I wanted to get things moving more quickly? But, you’re right. We really do need to talk things through before anything else.”

Molly kissed the top of her head and headed for the door, “My work here is done then. Plus I need food. Takes a lot of calories to keep me going.” As she started to open the door she turned to Gert and winked, “I’d offer to bring you back something, but I expect you’re going to be busy for the rest of the night.”

Gert chuckled, “Thanks, Molls. For everything.”

Molly gave a half salute, as she left the room, “No problemo.” Closing the door behind her she stopped short as she almost walked into Chase and Alex. “Hey guys – how’d target practice go?”

They both shrugged, and Chase answered, “He can hit the broad side of a barn.”

“Hey!” Alex protested, “I can do better than that! I was dead center on like 3 of the last 5 targets!”

“So, you’re saying 60 is a passing grade?” Chase asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, maybe not, but it’s better than ‘broad side of a barn’!” Alex sputtered.

Molly separated the two of them, “Break it up, guys. Alex, come with me – you’re grouchy and need food. Chase, Gert wants to talk with you.”

Chase’s eyes widened, “Is she mad at me?”

Molly chuckled and shook her head, “No dude – just listen to her and don’t be an idiot, ok?”

Chase nodded distractedly as he handed his set of fistigons to Alex, and then knocked on the door, calling out Gert’s name before entering when she told him to come in.

Alex raised an eyebrow, “They going to be ok?”

Molly crossed her arms and sighed, “God, I hope so.” She nodded toward the main building and both she and Alex started walking toward it. “I think I’ve got the controls worked out to where I can manage a pizza – and you have no idea how many layers of monitoring subroutines I needed to disable to get the health nazis to allow for the grease and carbs in that.”

“You know how to disable replicator security logs?”

“Yep. Only way to get it to produce edible food without getting a mandatory nutrition lecture every time I want a cheeseburger.”

“Could you get around the logs for replicating something else?”

Molly looked at Alex suspiciously, “Please tell me you don’t want lingerie.”

Alex raised an eyebrow, glanced back at Gert and Chase’s room, and chuckled, “No. But there’s a couple of things I might want to sneak in under the radar in our supply list for the mission.”

A mischievous smile crossed Molly’s face, “Now we’re talking.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time:
> 
> Chase was pretty sure his hands were shaking. Gert had been kind of distant ever since Duncan had dropped the bomb about future him having a kid with someone else and he kind of figured it was something they were going to have to talk about eventually. Which he guessed meant now, whether or not he was ready for it. And, given the way things went when they 'talked' about Nico, he really wasn't ready for this. He peered around the door before entering the room, and warily asked, “So, Molls said I wasn’t in trouble, but I just wanted to make sure?”
> 
> Gert smiled nervously, “You’re not in trouble.” Planning what she was going to say was the easy part. Actually saying it though....
> 
> Chase saw Gert fidgeting, which was kind of confusing. When she'd blown up about Nico she was cold and kind of detached, and he knew that was how she got when she was trying to cope, but then she'd started crying when she talked about how she always knew he was going to dump her for someone prettier. Which was bullshit, but she was better at arguing than he was, plus he had been crying even worse than her, and then she'd died so they never really even finished that argument. 
> 
> But – this was very different, and even if she was planning on dumping him again, he couldn't just stand there and watch her picking at her fingernails while she was trying to figure out whatever it was she wanted to say. He walked across the room to her, taking one hand and putting his other hand up to the side of her face, before asking “Baby, what’s wrong?”


End file.
